The
Presidency on Saturday released what it called a ‘full list’ of all the
appointments made by President Muhammadu Buhari since he assumed office on May
29, 2015.
However,
the 159-member list contains several errors and omissions, an ongoing review by
PREMIUM TIMES has shown.
According
to Premium Times, at least 29 names of heads of agencies or parastatals were
missing on the list while data provided for another five were
incorrect.
The
presidency had been challenged by a publication by BusinessDay which indicated
that 81 of Mr. Buhari’s appointments are either from the North-east, North-west
or North Central.
In
apparent response to that report as well as several similar ones, the
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi
Adesina, released the list of 159 appointees on Saturday.
The
BusinessDay report that 81 of the president’s 100 political appointees are
northerners is “misleading”, Mr. Adesina, said in the statement. “To claim,
suggest or attempt to insinuate that the President’s appointments
are tilted in favour of a section of the country is simply untrue and certainly
uncharitable.”
Mr.
Adesina then provided a graphical illustration of
different states and the number of top appointees from the respective states.
The
graph shows that Ogun, a South-western state has the highest number of appointments with 21, followed by
Imo, a South-eastern state; and Kano, a North-western state which both have 15
each. Edo, a South-south state, and the president’s home state of Katsina both
have 14 appointees each.
Mr.
Adesina’s 159-name list indicated that the South-west has
the highest number of appointments at 42, followed by North-west, 30,
and North-east, 24. South-east, North-central and South-south have 22, 21 and
20 respectively.
However,
Premium Times reports that a closer look at the list provided by Mr.
Adesina show several omissions and errors.
Below
are some of these omissions spotted by PREMIUM TIMES:
FRCN,
NTA DGs missing
The
Director-General of the Federal Radio Corporation
of Nigeria, FRCN, Mansur Liman, who is from Mr. Buhari’s hometown of Daura is
omitted from the list.
Also
omitted is Yakubu Ibn Muhammed, from Bauchi State, who was appointed as the
Director General of the Nigerian Television Authority.
Ismael
Ahmed missing
The
Senior Special Assistant, SSA to the President on Social Investment Programmes, Ismael Ahmed, who was appointed by the
Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo, while Mr. President was out of the country, is
also missing on the list. Mr. Ahmed is from Kano, North-west.
It is
not clear if this omission was deliberate as the announcement was done by Mr.
Osinbajo.
Other
SAs, SSAs missing
Ibrahim
Bapetel Hassan, SSA Policy Research and Monitoring from Adamawa State; Tolu
Ogunlesi, Special Assistant on Digital and New Media; Lauretta Onochie,
Personal Assistant on Social Media; and Shaban Sharada, Personal Assistant on
Broadcast Media (Radio) are all missing on the presidency’s ‘full list.’
Also
missing are Nasir Saidu Adhama, Special Assistant on Youths & Students
Affairs; Abdulrahman Bappa Yola, Special Assistant in the Office of the Vice
President; and Bashir Ahmed, Personal Assistant on New Media, all from Kano.
Missing
September 2016 appointees?
On
September 26, 2016, President Buhari announced appointments of executives for
13 federal government agencies. However, only seven of them are reflected in
the Presidency list.
Missing
are; Joseph Ari, Director-General, Industrial Training Fund; Simbi Wabote,
Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Monitoring Board; Aboloma Anthony,
Director-General, Standards Organisation of Nigeria; Mamman Amadu,
Director-General, Bureau of Public Procurement; Ahmed Bobboi, Executive
Secretary, Petroleum Equalization Fund and Sa’adiya Faruq, Federal
Commissioner, National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally
Displaced Persons.
Abubakar
Bello, NEXIM, CEO missing
In a
widely-reported appointment, President Muhammadu Buhari in April 2017, approved
the appointment of Abubakar Abba Bello as the
new Managing Director of Nigeria Export-Import Bank (NEXIM). His name was also
missing from the listreleased on Saturday.
Heads
of health agencies missing
On July
29, 2016, the Director Press of the Secretary to the Government of the
Federation (SGF) Bolaji Adebiyi, in a statement said the President has approved
the appointment of new heads of five agencies in the Federal Ministry of
Health.
Interestingly,
four of the five are missing in the latest presidency list.
Not
mentioned in the Presidency list are Babatunde Salako, the Director-General of
National Institute for Medical Research from Ogun State; and Chikwe Ihekweazu,
the coordinator of National Centre for Disease Control appointed in August
2016.
Also
omitted are: Echezona Ezeanolue the Executive Director of National Primary
Healthcare Development Agency; Usman Yusuf, the DG of National Health Insurance
Scheme, who was recently suspended; and the Director-General, National Agency
for the Control of AIDS, NACA, Sani Aliyu.
OTHERS
Also
missing from the list are the Managing Director, Federal Roads
Maintenance Agency, FERMA, Nurudeen Rafindadi from Katsina; Chairman, Board of
the FCT Internal Revenue Service, Abdullahi Attah; and Bayo Somefun, Managing Director, Nigeria Social
Insurance Trust Fund.
Others
are, Luci Ajayi, Executive Secretary, Lagos International Trade Fair Management
Board; and Emmanuel Jimme, Managing Director, Nigeria Export Processing Zones
Authority.
Apart
from the missing names, however, some of those listed were wrongly
described.
Babandede
not from North-central
The
presidency list claimed that the Comptroller-General of Nigeria Immigration
Service, NIS, is from the North-central. But checks by PREMIUM TIMES found this
to be wrong. The Immigration boss hails from Jigawa, a North-western state.
Roli Bode George
not NDLEA Chairman
The
presidency list identified the wife of PDP chieftain, Bode George,
Roli Bode-George as the CEO of Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency,
NDLEA. The list also claimed the BusinessDay list wrongly identified
her as Muhammad Abdullah.
However,
a further check grossly put the presidency in the wrong.
Mrs. Bode-George is not the CEO of the agency. In November 2015, she was
appointed acting chairman of the agency, a position she occupied for 54 days
before Muhammad Abdullah, a native of Adamawa State, was appointed as
substantive chairman on January 19, 2016.
Maryam
Uwais not from North-central
Maryam
Uwais who was appointed as President Buhari’s Special Adviser for
Social Protection Plan was listed to have hailed from North-central;
but a further checksignifies that the wife of former Chief Justice of
Nigeria, Muhammadu Uwais is from Kano State.
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