The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina; says he once told President Muhammadu Buhari about the grumblings of some Nigerians regarding the skewed appointments in favour of the North.
Adesina said the President responded by telling him that it would be wrong to deny competent appointments based on where they are from.
The President’s spokesman said this in an article titled, ‘Buhari at 78: If Only We Knew the President’.
He said, “One day, the President had given me an appointment to announce in the early days of the administration. By then, some people had started talking of northernisation agenda. So I said, ‘Mr President, this is the murmur we hear. Why don’t you consider giving this position to another part of the country?’
“He looked at me calmly, smiled, and said: ‘If a search has been conducted for a position, and someone has been thrown up as the best candidate. And I then bypass him because of where he comes from, or because of his religion, haven’t I been unfair to that person?’”.
Adesina claimed that a previous tally of the President’s appointments showed that the South- West had the highest number of appointees.
The President’s aide said there was no truth to the allegation that Buhari was guilty of nepotism.
He said Buhari was neither a tribalist nor a religious bigot because the President attended his mother’s funeral service in 2015.
Adesina stated, “A kind man. I have lots of stories to tell, but let me restrict myself to a few. In December 2015, I had lost my elder sister, a Professor of Dramatic Arts, in an auto crash.
While I was crying like a wailing wailer, who was on the phone, consoling and condoling with me? Muhammadu Buhari.
“And before he became President, when my mother passed on in 2013, and we had a commendation service for her in Lagos, who flew in all the way from Kaduna to attend? Muhammadu Buhari. He sat through the Christian service. Yet, they say he’s a bigot. I hear. Bigot from Sudan.”