The member representing Pankshin/Kanke/Kanam Constituency in the House Representatives, Hon. Timothy Golu, yesterday challenged President Muhammadu Buhari, to ensure federal character is adhered to in his appointments.
Golu in a chat with journalists in Jos, said current appointments fall drastically below the requirements of federal character, urging the President to tow the line of late President Umar Yar’adua, who appointed people from other political parties to build up political unity in the country.
He cited both the military and political institutions as areas where the President’s appointments have particularly fallen short of federal character.
“Looking state-by-state, you would see that several states are conspicuously missing from the appointments and others are overly represented with 3 or 4 nominees.
According to the Lawmaker, “I fully understand that the President has to appoint his most loyal and trusted aides in key places, but where other appointments do not cover all states, people are bound to feel disaffected.
“I always give the example of late Yar’adua’s PDP administration. Under that PDP administration, the ANPP and other opposition political parties were given political appointments. Yar’adua had Minister and Special Advisers that belonged to other political parties.
“In Plateau State for instance (which was a PDP state), we had an appointee, Alhaji Ibrahim Nakande who was appointed Minister to represent the state under ANPP. That to an extent was able to build up political unity because it also reconciled the political parties, reduced conflict and brought down tension,” he explained.
“So, we expected the President to approach these political parties for political unity. He has the discretion to do that, he may not necessarily breach any constitutional provision.
“And for some political positions, the President has his own discretion, he may not have violated any constitutional provision, but for political expediency, for political unity, the President should come to terms with the reality that it is not only those who voted for him that should be given positions.”
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