Presidency fumes over article on Buhari’s appointees

The Presidency has described as `divisive, mischievous and misleading’ a newspaper article, titled, “81 of Buhari’s 100 appointees are Northerners’’.

Mr Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, said the article by Business Day was meant to portray the Buhari administration in bad light.

Adesina stated that the article was either an ignorant effort or a mischievous attempt by the publication to mislead the public.

According to him, the publication’s inconsistencies and selective reportage are questionable and divisive with its many misleading statements that should be taken with a pinch of salt.

“ Although the publication claims to be a fact-checking reportage, what it did essentially is roughly putting together a string of misleading statements across two pages of a newspaper.

“To push this biased reportage, which wrongly claimed that 81 of President Buhari’s 100 appointees are Northerners, the writer unilaterally selected 100 appointees to drive home the distraction presented as “facts”.

“It is, indeed, false for anyone to say that President Buhari’s appointments are lopsided.

“From all records, majority of the President’s appointees across different portfolios are not from the North, as the publication erroneously alleged.

“If the publication did not have ulterior motives, a simple enquiry from official sources in the Presidency would have prevented this unwarranted public disinformation.’’

He maintained that despite the distractions and biased reportage of this article, the President remained committed to serving all Nigerians, no matter the tribe, ethnicity or region.

The presidential aide said President Buhari was also determined to ensure that `Nigeria remains strong and united’, saying that he would continue to keep faith with one Nigeria.

He explained that the president had shown this with the administration’s diverse projects in different parts of the country’s geopolitical zones.

He, therefore, stated that, to claim, suggest or attempt to insinuate that the President’s appointments were tilted in favour of a section of the country was simply untrue and uncharitable.

Adesina further said: “The publication could not even cross the t’s and dot the i’s properly.

“For instance, the author wrongly named the Director-General, NISER, as Haruna Yerima, whereas the DG, NISER is actually Folarin Gbadebo-Smith. Again, the author wrongly identified the CEO, NDLEA as Muhammad Abdallah. However, Mrs. Roli Bode-George is the CEO, NDLEA.

“Why will a publication of the status of Business Day embark on such shoddiness, or are we to conclude this was calculated to create a particular perception?

“The article also wrongly named Tunde Irukera as Executive Secretary of CPP,-whatever that is- instead of Consumer Protection Council (CPC). Rather conveniently, the publication ignored mentioning that Mr Emeka Nwankpa is chairman of CPC. Not only that, the writer claimed that the Director-General of the Budget Office is Aliyu Gusau, whereas Mr. Ben Akabueze is the actual DG, Budget Office.

“Besides, the publication made not just one, but several errors on names and positions, in what could be seen as a deliberate attempt to mislead the reading public, along the lines of some intended distortions of the truth.

“For example, there are several other appointments the publication failed to mention, which clearly shows the fair geopolitical spread of President Buhari’s appointees.

“For instance, the publication didn’t mention Sharon Ikeazor, Director-General, PTAD, who is from Anambra, South East; Folorunsho Coker, DG, NTDC; who is from Lagos, South West; Ituah Ighodalo, of the National Council of Privatisation, who is from the South South; Eze Duru Ihioma, Chairman, NPC, who is from Imo, South East, among many others.’’

According to Adesina, there are at least 50 names of the President’s appointees that the article didn’t mention that are not from the North, while there are some others that were already in place before the administration came in but reconfirmed by the Buhari administration.

He also revealed that, several names of board members/appointees from other parts of the country were deliberately left out.

He said the omitted names included Sen. Olabiyi Durojaiye, NCC Chairman; Sunday Dare, NCC Executive Commissioner; Jide Zeitlin, NSIA Chairman; Anthony Ayine, Auditor General of the Federation and Anibor Kragha, COO NNPC.

The affected appointees whose names were omitted in the article also included Chiedu Ugbo, MD NDPHC, Uche Orji, CEO NSIA, Osita Okechukwu, DG VON, Yemi Kale, DG NBS and Waziri Adio, Executive Secretary NEITI, among several others.

He, therefore, maintained that, “it is, indeed, false for anyone to say that President Buhari’s appointments are lopsided.

“From all records, majority of the President’s appointees across different portfolios are not from the North, as the publication erroneously alleged.

“If the publication did not have ulterior motives, a simple enquiry from official sources in the Presidency would have prevented this unwarranted public disinformation.

Adesina concluded that, “what Nigerians need now are unity and constructive dialogue that would help the nation march forward on the right path not divisive, misleading reportage.’’

The article was published by the newspaper on Oct. 29.(NAN)