Buhari belongs to North alone —Ezeife

A former Governor of Anambra State in the Third Republic, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of reneging on his promise of commitment to all Nigerians, in the light of the President’s 100 days in office.

Buhari, in his May 29 inaugural speech, had said, “Having sworn by the Holy Book, I intend to keep my oath and serve as President to all Nigerians. I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody.”

But Ezeife told The PUNCH that the President’s loyalty lay only with the North, based on his appointments since assuming office.

Of Buhari’s appointments so far, the North-West has 10, while the North-East and North-Central each have seven; the South-South has five; the South-West, three; and the South-East, none.

Ezeife said, “He (Buhari) raised the hopes of Nigerians with his inaugural statement. When he said he belongs to no one and he belongs to everyone, Nigerians rejoiced. But with what we see today, he seems to belong to the North only. He doesn’t seem to belong to Nigeria.

“He has been clear about his anti-corruption drive and set up a committee to do some of these. Before the committee started working, at random, some people were being pulled in and asked questions. I think in that area, we can score him 50 per cent because he hasn’t done something systematic against corruption except for the committee that has been formed.”

The ex-governor added that Buhari’s major failure was the inexistence of a Federal Executive Council. He noted that the constitution recognises the President working through the council and that the law did not provide for dictatorial behaviour.

He added, “But right now, the President is acting as a dictator; he has no minister and, until recently, he had no Secretary to the Government of the Federation. It is like when he was chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund, the South-West had about 4.7 per cent of all allocations and the South-East got 3.5 per cent.

“The bulk of allocations went to the North-West. Again, the bulk of his appointments have gone to the North-West. Meanwhile, the South-East has got not one appointment and 30 appointments have been made.”

According to Ezeife, the appointments suggest that the South-East is no longer wanted in Nigeria. He added that with the office of the SGF gone, there was no remedy to the situation but to withdraw the appointment.