The Governor of Ekiti State, Mr Ayodele Fayose has called President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) a sectional leader, who sees himself mainly as a leader of the Hausa/Fulani and not that of the entire Nigeria.
According to the governor who has never hidden his displeasure for several actions taken by the president, the appointment of yet another northerner, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu as Chairman the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is a vindication of his position that “President Muhammadu Buhari is a sectional leader”.
“Nigeria has entered a one chance bus and it remains to be seen who will save the country from its sectional President,” said Fayose.
“Shouldn’t he have considered someone from either South-East, South-South or South-West as Chairman of the Electoral Commission now that we have a President from the North?
“For reasons of perception, equity and fairness, don’t we have credible people from the Southern part of Nigeria that can conduct credible elections as INEC Chairman?” the governor asked.
“How … can we have a President from the North and at the same time have INEC Chairman from the Hausa/Fulani Northern Nigeria?
“Obviously, what is being witnessed is more like a situation where it appears the President is more interested in having someone malleable to him than serving the interest of Nigeria and its people.
“Elections have already been won and lost by the appointment of this Hausa/Fulani professor as INEC chairman. Or isn’t it regrettable that even in 2015, it is only in PDP controlled States that elections are being upturned?”
Fayose further expressed worry that the three arms of government — Executive, Legislative and Judiciary — were being headed by northerners, leaving the three zones in the Southern part of the country with nothing.
“When Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was the President, he never appointed a Yoruba man as INEC chairman. Dr Goodluck Jonathan too did not appoint an Ijaw man as INEC Chairman.
“Former President Shehu Shagari too did not appoint a Hausa man like himself as Chairman of the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO). Rather, he appointed late Justice Victor Ovie Whisky.
“During the Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha regimes, no Hausa/Fulani man was appointed as Chairman of the National Electoral Commission of Nigeria and General Abdulsalami Abubakar who established the current INEC did not also appoint his fellow Hausa man as chairman,” Fayose noted.
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