President Muhammadu Buhari has rejected assertions that appointments into offices in his administration are lopsided.
The President stated this in an interview with Arise TV’s team of Nduka Obaigbena, Olusegun Adeniyi, Dr. Reuben Abati and Tundun Abiola on Thursday.
He said he would not allow appointments into offices “just to balance up” while neglecting qualified candidates.
“They trained in Zaria or Abeokuta, they come through the ranks and because they served under all the circumstances, the crises and everything and they gradually rise to the status.
“And you think, you will just pick somebody just to balance up. These positions have to be earned. There are people who have been there for 10 to 15 years,” President Buhari said during the interview for the station’s Good Morning Show.
Since his return as a democratically-elected president in 2015, Buhari has been accused of favouring those from his northern part of the country in strategic appointments when there were better-qualified candidates from the South.
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The president’s critics accused him of violating federal capital principles in the appointments of security chiefs.
Reacting to a question, the President said joining the security forces was a matter of choice, noting that those that enlist have to go through the proper processes.
Asked what he was doing to give the people of the South-East a sense of inclusion, Buhari insisted that there was no favouritism in his government.
He insisted that those from the South-East were being treated like people from other sections of the country, urging those still in doubt to check a list of workers in the federal civil service.
“You better get the list of our civil servants, if you think there are no people from the south-east. There are people from the south-east,” Buhari said.
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