BUHARI: A LEOPARD THAT CANNOT CHANGE ITS SPOTS

Our dear president Muhammadu Buhari just swore in his ministers and assigned portfolios to them. A critical look at the distribution of portfolios will reveal that notwithstanding the grave accusations of nepotism against the president in the past, he is not moved at all and will continue in the same trajectory in his purported next level agenda.

Now, let us analyse the distribution of portfolios among the six geopolitical zones as well as among the states.

1. South East has six ministers. Three of them are full ministers, namely Chris Ngige (Anambra), Ogbonnaya Onu (Ebonyi), and Geoffrey Onyeama (Enugu) assigned to the Ministries of Labour & Employment, Science &Technology and Foreign Affairs respectively, while the other three are junior ministers otherwise baptised as ministers of state. They are Uche Ogar (Abia), Sharon Ikeazor (Anambra) and Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba(Imo) and were assigned to Mines & Steel Development, Environment and Education respectively. It is only Anambra State that has two ministers in the South East zone.

2. South South has seven ministers; three of whom are full ministers, while four are ministers of state. It is only Edo state that has two ministers in this zone. The zone is in full control of the ministries of Niger Delta Affairs, Health, and Transportation manned by Godswill Akpabio, Osagie Ehanire and Rotimi Amaechi respectively. The zone is also in partial control of the ministries of Petroleum, Power and Budget & National Planning where the ministers of state namely Timipre Silva, Godwin Jedi Agbo and Clement Ikanade Agba are serving. Festus Keyamo is minister of state, Niger Delta Affairs, which is already in control of the zone.

3. South West has the best deal among the southern zones. It has seven ministers and in full control of five ministries with full ministers namely:

a) Industry, Trade & Investment with Adeniyi Adebayo as minister (Ekiti)

b) Mines & Steel Development with Olamilekan Adegbite as minister (Ogun)

c) Interior with Rauf Aregbesola as minister (Osun)

d) Youth & Sports with Sunday Dare as minister (Oyo) and

e) Works & Housing with Raji Fashola as minister (Lagos)

This zone is also partially in control in two ministries where they have ministers of state. These include Ministry of Labour where Omotayo Alasuadura(Ondo) is serving as Minister of state and Ministry of Health Where Adeleke Mamora(Lagos) is serving as Minister of state. Lagos is twice blessed with two ministers in this zone.

4. North Central also has seven ministers…..three full ministers and four ministers of state. Kwara state is the only state in this zone that has two ministers…..one, a full minister and the other, a minister of state. This zone is in full control of the ministries of Special Duties, Information and Culture and Women Affairs, manned by George Akume (Benue), Lai Mohammed (Kwara) and Pauline Tallen (Plateau) respectively. The minsters of state from this zone are Gbemisola Saraki (Kwara) Transportation, Ramatu Tijani Aliyu(Kogi) FCT, Mohammed Abdullahi (Nasarawa) Science &Technology and Zubairu Dada (Niger) Foreign Affairs.

5. North East zone produced seven ministers…four full ministers and three ministers of state. The four full ministers are Mohammed Musa Bello (Adamawa) Minister of FCT, Adamu Adamu (Bauchi) Education, Sale Mamman (Taraba) power and Ali Isa Pantami (Gombe) Communication. The ministers of state include Maryam Katagum (Bauchi) Industry, Mustapha Baba Shehuri (Borno) Agriculture and Abubakir Aliyu (Yobe) Works & Housing.

6. North West Zone where the president comes from has nine ministers and all of them are full ministers without exception.

They are

a) Suleiman Adamu (Jigawa) Minister of Water Resources

b) Zainab Samsung Ahmed (Kaduna) Finance, Budget &National Planning

c) Mohammed Mahmoud (Kaduna) Environment

d) Mohammed Sabo Nanono (Kano) Agriculture

e) Bashir Magashi (Kano) Defence

f) Hadi Sirika(Katsina)Aviation

g) Abubakir Malami (Kebbi) Att.Gen & Justice

h) Mohammed Maigari Dangyadi (Sokoto) Police Affairs and

i) Sadiya Umar Faruk (Zamfara) Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Mgt & Social Dev.

From the foregoing, it is obvious that the president is not perturbed by the hues and cries of marginalisation by other zones. How can he (the president) justify the fact that all the ministers from North West are manning full ministries even where there are two ministers from a particular state. For instance, Kano and Kaduna states have two ministers each and they are both in charge of full ministries, whilst states like Imo, Abia, Cross River, Delta etc that have only one minister each, are assigned junior ministers portfolios.

Again, if you check the ministries assigned to ‘his people’, you would understand that our their president is not fair at all. My conclusion therefore is that the purported next level agenda is nothing but next level of marginalisation.

Any true Nigerian therefore (no matter his political party or leaning), who is not seeing the president for who he is (an unrepentant tribalist and an ethnic bigot), must be a mistake of a human being.

Besides, taking into consideration the anger in the land (exercerbated by the cluelessness of this administration), coupled with the fact that the legitimacy of this government is in doubt (going by the events at the Presidential Election Tribunal), the president should have tried to be fair. There is no how Nigeria will survive in these circumstances. I believe the president is deliberately (without qualms) putting the death knell on the coffin of Nigeria. We may as well go our separate ways. There can never be peace without justice. Enough of this nonsense.

Buhari is indeed a Leopard that can never change its spots. True to type, he has again manifested his traits by his assignment of portfolios to ministers. He surely is not a patriotic Nigerian, otherwise, he would not be fanning the ambers of discord by his nepotistic tendencies. I cry for my beloved country. Shame on all his promoters.

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