Gambari’s Appointment Shows Buhari Only Trusts Northerners – Group

Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has stated that President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointment of Professor Ibrahim Gambari as his new Chief of Staff, shows that he only trusts his tribesmen.
The group said the appointment has diminished Buhari’s status as a statesman and a nationalist.
HURIWA also criticised Gambari’s
appointment into a public office, when the same man was a minister about four decades ago, when most Nigerians now were not born.
The Rights group said the choice of Gambari, who is almost 80 years of age, shows that the President loves government based on rule by old people, rather than democracy, under which he was elected.
In a statement signed by its national Ccoordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, and the national media affairs director, Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA said it is unfortunate that for five years, Buhari has been consistent, and has “ramped up his soft spot and his passion for always and often picking his tribesmen, women and religious associates from the north into strategic national offices since the last five years.”
HURIWA also alleged that it is the same way Buhari has made rash of appointments into the Federal Character Commission (FCC) and the Police Trust fund (PTF ), in which northern Muslims are nominated as chairmen and executive secretaries.
The group said it is now clear that contrary to the widely held belief that it was the late chief of staff, Abba Kyari, who was to be blamed for sectional appointments made since the last five years.
It said Buhari himself is directly responsible for those appointments that are in breach of the federal character principles enshrined in the constitution.
“The demise of the immediate past Chief of Staff Abba Kyari was seen by some observers as the end of nepotism and sectionalism in the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration because those accusing the then powerful CoS from Borno State assumed that as someone who belonged to the infamous Kaduna Mafia, and had lived in Kaduna metropolis which is the centre of Pro-northern politics, that he was instrumental to the heavily biased pro-northern appointments made by the current administration since the past five years,” HURIWA said.
“But now with these many appointments by President Muhammadu Buhari after the demise of the Chief of staff, it has manifested clearly that President Buhari is personally responsible for these one-sided strategic appointments given to the North.
“Ibrahim Gambari is Fulani. That the President does not even trust a Southerner as his Chief of Staff shows that the much-touted legacy that Muhammadu Buhari is a nationalist and a statesman is at best a ruse and propaganda.”
HURIWA noted that the first public comments by Gambari, that he is not answerable to Nigerians but to the President, have shown the danger of nepotism and favouritism in making national appointments in a complex society like Nigeria.
“It is, therefore, a closed matter for Nigerians to expect any quality public service from a man who tells the citizens not to expect accountability and openness from him whilst he holds a publicly funded office,” the group further said.
HURIWA recall that when asked what Nigerians should expect from him as chief of staff, Gambari told reporters that:
“We have not started. I’ll have to find out. I don’t report directly to the nation, I report to the president.”
He said he will be offering his “loyalty, competence and support” to the president, adding that as the chief of staff, his guiding principle would be “to serve the president to the best of my ability.”
The group stated that the responses are saddening, and shows that Nigerians will not get any qualitative or quantitative public service from the current Chief of Staff