- Zoning is cheating
The president-elect should be mindful of political maneuvers of the opposition parties and their touts who camouflage as men of God offering advice for him to form a government of national unity, but who, in the real sense, are actually politicians in robes and agbada gowns working for the interest of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) since 2011 and lately, the Labour Party (LP).
The Asiwaju should draw his cabinet members 100 percent from his own party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). There are 1001 patriotic Nigerians in the party who can assist him in transforming the nation based on his programmes.
He should also ignore the kites being flown by certain individuals who want to sway his thoughts on who to appoint as ministers and in other top positions from especially his immediate major constituency, the Southwest.
The fact is that some of the names we have seen being promoted in the media are those who worked with him since his days as the Governor of Lagos State. The same people also worked for the Buhari administration for eight years and now bieng packaged again for the Jagaba to recycle them.
In my opinion, except for exceptional public servants like Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State and his mentee, Hadiza Bala Usman, the President-Elect should try new hands from especially the states that contributed to his election with massive votes.
There is no harm in taking advise or accepting names of credible Nigerians from any of the outgoing or former APC Governors that stood by him during the primaries and the general election, but none of them should be given ministerial appointment.
The Asiwaju should go for new vibrant hands and not former chief executives of states, many of whom made little impact while serving their states. No nutrient is ever found in any regurgitated food.
The Jagaba should also do the APC the favour of not rewarding zones that did not vote for the party’s candidates, including the presidential, with plump appointments like the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).
The country’s constitution has already guaranteed each state with at least one ministerial and one ambassadorial positions whether they voted for the President’s political party or not. However, it would be injustice for the president-elect to reward a zone that shunned him and his party at the polls with top appointments.
I have gone through the zoning table released yesterday [Monday] by the office of the National Chairman of the APC in which the position of Deputy Speaker is generously zoned to the Southeast, even when the APC came third in the presidential election there and did poorly in the national assembly elections, because the people decided to put all their eggs in one basket.
(To be continued)
- Iyawa is former Nigerian Ambassador to Mexico
