'Lop-Sided' Appointments: Buhari’s Special Adviser On Media, Femi Adesina Replies Critics

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina has called on those criticizing his principal for appointing mostly northerners into his government to first look at how qualified those appointed are for such positions, adding that it is the President’s prerogative to appoint whoever he pleases into his government.

While enjoining those already crying wolf over Buhari’s early appointments to first take cognizance of “the personal merit of each person that has been appointed,” he stressed that: “You cannot run away from the fact that each person appointed merits the position. They are qualified!”

Adesina, who made this known Friday while speaking on RayPower’s flagship program in Abuja, said: “But then in terms of the spread, the thing I will also like to say is that the President has the prerogative to make appointments and he knows that there is federal character in our constitution. I’m sure he bears that in mind as he makes the appointments that will come in the future.

“I believe that at the end of it all, there is going to be a balance. “These are still early days in the appointments he is going to make. At the end of it all, I believe we are going to have a balance,” he stated.

Responding to the need for Buhari to make appointments bearing in mind that Nigerians of northern extraction are already leading the legislature and the judiciary, Adesina said: “Let’s not forget that some of those were by elections, some were statutorily the next person in rank. There is nothing the president can do about that. If it’s by election, what will he do about it? Because he doesn’t control the election; the National Assembly came by election.”

“For the ones he can control, there are still so many ahead,” he said stressing that any position can be key depending on the way the person appointed into the position “applies himself to that position.”

On whether Nigerians can begin to expect ministerial list, the Presidential spokesman assured that Buhari will keep to the September dateline given by him. He added that, “September is just next month and it has 30 days. I believe that within those thirty days, the job will be done.”