|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
President Buhari
By Nuhu Adamu
Controversy still trails the accusations that Taraba State Governor, Architect Darius Ishaku has been biased against Muslims in the state regarding appointments and other benefits.
The Taraba State Muslim Council in a recent press briefing had accused Governor Ishaku of discrimination and marginalization of Taraba Muslims in the area of political appointments.
However, most observers and analysts in Taraba State view the allegations as incoherent and meaningless, owing to the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari cannot be exonerated from glaring marginalization and bias against Christians in the areas of appointments and other considerations since on assumption of office in 2015.
The Executive Director, Transparency and Accountability in Governance Initiative, a Taraba-based Civil Society Organization, Mr. Haruna Bako, once said that the action by the Governor was to balance the insensitivity and the imbalance in the selection and consideration of political appointments at the federal level.
“In the first place, all the ministerial nominations from Taraba since 2015 had been Muslims, Christians had never complained, all governorship candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Taraba State beginning from 2015 and 2019 were all Muslims and Christians had never complained.
“It is also a pointer that the APC which is headed by President Buhari is also planning to impose a Muslim candidate on the people of Taraba State in the forthcoming 2023 governorship elections.
“In addition, out of 16 federal appointments into extra ministerial agencies (boards and parastatals) only four are Christians, with all these, no one sees these as a marginalization against Christians.
“Right at the top, President Buhari has appointed most ministers who are Muslims even from Christian dominated states, the presidency is completely headed by Muslims. For example, President who heads the executive arm of government, a Muslim, Senate president and speaker House of Representatives, Muslim, Chief Justice of the Federation, Muslim.
“Similarly, heads of security and paramilitary agencies had been Muslims’ birthright under Buhari administration. E.g National Security Adviser, Chief of Army Staff, Inspector General of Police, Director Generals of DSS and National Intelligence Agency, CG Civil Defense, Immigration, Prison Service, Fire Service, Customs Service to mention but a few.
“With the illustration above, the question should be who is marginalising who? Should the recent complain from the Muslim council in Taraba not be viewed as a paradox?”
Mr Bako also cautioned Nigerian citizens to be wary of those divisive tendencies employ by political class to achieve their personal interest.
He also advised citizens not to fall spray to the cheap political gimmick adopted by elites to confuse the citizenry.
“Nigeria is a secular state with two dominant religions. It behooves leaders to take this in to deep cognisance and sensitive to this fact, hence desist from marginalisation of one religious’ group against the other.
“We advise the Federal government to enhance fairness and Justice in allocation of resources and equity in distribution of appointments to reflect the character of the Nigerian society.
“This will serve as template for stabilising governance at all levels of administrative composition in Nigeria.
“Let’s therefore, do away with some of these tendencies that can divide us and develop those ones that can hold us together,” Bako said.
