The Northern Youth Leaders Forum (NYLF) has stated that northerners do not have legitimate grounds to complain about what they perceive as “lopsided” appointments made by President Bola Tinubu. Some leaders from the region had criticized Tinubu for alleged skewed appointments favoring the South West, his home region.
In a recent sermon, Islamic cleric Ahmad Gumi had criticized Tinubu for appointing Southern Christians into key positions and suggested that the President would not secure a second term in office. Gumi also accused Tinubu of using the North to attain the Presidency only to pursue an agenda aimed at diminishing the region’s political influence.
Addressing the media in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Elliot Afiyo, the national President of NYLF, argued that Tinubu was exacerbating the gap of alleged lopsided appointments inherited from his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari.
Afiyo maintained that Buhari’s administration had created a lopsided appointment ratio of 80:20 for the North and South. He called on Tinubu to rectify this situation, emphasizing that the country should not continue in this “error.”
Afiyo said, “I would say northerners don’t have the right to complain that the appointments or placements are lopsided. We don’t have the right to complain. But as an advanced citizen, I ask: can we continue like this? If we get an Igbo President, he will appoint Igbos. Where are we going as a nation? So, there is a need for us to balance it.”
Afiyo also expressed concern over what he called negative propaganda against Tinubu’s administration by some religious leaders in the North, urging security agencies to address this issue.
He called on Tinubu to address the situation promptly to prevent the contamination of people’s opinions, particularly among the rural northern youth, who constitute 70% of the Northern population.
