Drama As Presidency Backtracks On Defence On Tinubu’s Appointments

The Presidency has walked back its earlier defense of President Bola Tinubu’s political appointments following public backlash and fact-checks disputing its claims of fairness and regional balance.

This comes after Senator Ali Ndume, representing Borno South, accused President Tinubu of favoring the South West in his appointments — a move the senator argued violates the federal character principle enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution.

Responding to the criticism, Sunday Dare, a senior aide to the President, initially issued a statement defending Tinubu. In the now-deleted post, Dare claimed that out of 134 key federal appointments made so far, 71 were from the North, while 63 were from the South — with 29 of those allegedly from the South West, 21 from the South South, and 16 from the South East.

However, following intense scrutiny and backlash from Nigerians who questioned the accuracy of the figures and the absence of a verifiable list, Dare has since deleted the statement and issued a public apology.

“We have noticed a number of errors in the list of appointments tweeted. We are sorry. We will provide an updated list later. Thank you,” he wrote in a follow-up post on Thursday.

The reversal has sparked even more debate online, with many Nigerians demanding transparency and a detailed, verifiable breakdown of all appointments made since President Tinubu assumed office.

Critics argue that the initial post, now admitted to contain errors, was an attempt to downplay growing concerns over ethnic favoritism in federal appointments — a pattern they say undermines national unity.

Read some netizens’ reactions below;

@maney: There’s nothing we will no see in this APC / tinubu presidency… people criticized marginalization… you printed fake and inaccurate charts of appointments that fits ur initiatives!… May BOLA AHMED TINUBU never happen to NIGERIA AGAIN!!!!

@sachi: This is what happens when a government is sponsoring and fanning ethnic bigotry that is spreading across like a wild fire in our country today. We’ve never had this bad until @officialABAT assumed office and started appointing his Lagos boys and tribes men/women to head

@oxd.sol: when you do, be sure not to omit the likes of femi gbaja, HMO, kunle adeleke, dami aderemi, issah niniola, kamal yusuf, and numerous other appointees of yoruba extraction i’m also certain the comptroller general of NIS did not join the service as an indigene of plateau

@etimsim3: I noticed the errors too where Buba Mawa appears in both NE and NW. And Ganduje appears twice. Meanwhile, president should do something about SE. Their list is unappealing. May Nigeria succeed.

Meanwhile, the Presidency has yet to release the corrected list as promised, further fueling suspicions of imbalance in the composition of Tinubu’s cabinet and other key positions.
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