Is President Buhari making the North stronger than the South? (Editor's Note)

Editor’s note: President Muhammadu Buhari has been criticised for his ‘lopsided appointment’ that has seen persons from the northern part of the country.

In this opinion by Azuka Onwuka, he points out that a one-sided appointment is likely to create a crack in the country and make on region stronger than the other.

Northern dominance

With last week’s appointment of Mr Ibrahim Idris as the Acting Inspector-General of Police, President Muhammadu Buhari further made the headship of virtually all the military-cum-defence agencies and related agencies which wear uniform a Northern affair.

It show the following: Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai,  North; Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, North; Acting Inspector General of Police, Mr Ibrahim Idris, North; Minister of Defence, Brig Gen (retd) Mansur Dan Ali, North; National Security Adviser, Major Gen (retd.) Babagana Munguno, North; Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr Ibrahim  Magu, North; Director-General, Department of State Services, Mr Lawal Daura, North; Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service, Col Hameed Ali (retd.), North; Comptroller-General, Nigerian Immigration Service, Mr Kure Abeshi, North; Controller-General, Nigerian Prisons Service, Alhaji Ja’afaru Ahmed, North; Commandant-General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Mr Abdullahi Muhammadu, North; Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps, Brig Gen Sule Kazaure, North; Comptroller-General of the Federal Fire Service , Mr Garba Anebi, North.

If it is recalled that the Minister of Interior, Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Damazzau (retd.), under whose ministry are Prisons Service, Immigration Service, Fire Service and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, is also from the North, then the Ministry of the Interior with its agencies is virtually controlled by the North in clear breach of the Federal Character policy enshrined in the constitution.

Furthermore, even though it was not Buhari that did it, yet for the first time in the history of Nigeria, all the three arms of government are headed by Northerners:  Executive, President Muhammadu Buhari;  Legisture, Dr Bukola Saraki; and Judiciary, Justice Mahmud Mohammed.

In addition, the two arms of the legislature are headed by Northerners: Dr Bukola Saraki, Senate President, and Mr Yakubu Dogara, Speaker, House of Representatives.

Currently, the three levels of the law courts are headed by Northerners: The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is Justice Mahmud Mohammed (North); the President of the Court of Appeal is Justice Zainab Adamu Bulkachuwa (North); while the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court is Justice Ibrahim Auta (North). It should be recalled that in 2015, Buhari appointed Alhaji Abubakar Malami as the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, also from the North.

Furthermore, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, which supervises the conduct of national and state elections, is also a Northerner: Prof. Mahmood Yakubu. The unwritten code used to be that the President of the country would appoint someone from a different zone (different language, different religion) as the INEC Chairman to give a sense of balance and increase the believability in the “independence” of INEC. That was why many people raised their voices when Buhari appointed Yakubu, who is from Bauchi State, just one state away from Buhari’s Katsina State, as the INEC boss; for even though Bauchi is grouped under the North-East, it is not seen as being culturally and religiously different from Katsina. It is like a President from the South-East appointing an Igbo from Delta State or Rivers State as INEC Chairman because Delta and Rivers are technically in the South-South, or a President from the South-West appointing a Yoruba from Kwara and Kogi as INEC Chairman on the grounds...

To be continued...