Ijaw Group Alleges Hidden Agenda Over Buhari’s Appointments

THE Ijaw Monitoring Group (IMG) has expressed disappointment over the appointments so far made by President Muhammadu Buhari describing them as grossly lopsided and suggestive of a hidden agenda.

Coordinator of the group, Joseph Evah, in a telephone interview with The Guardian yesterday accused President Buhari of abandoning his “I am for nobody and for everybody” inaugural speech promise to Nigerians.

Evah said: The Ijaw people of Niger Delta are disappointed. In fact, the entire Niger Delta people are disappointed that all the appointments of the President since he assumed office are lopsided and this would not bring the desired unity we all want in this dispensation. We are seeing the handwriting on the wall clearly, which indicates that if the President continues like this, he might not have the right atmosphere to manage the country.

“The President said he is for nobody and he is for everybody in his inaugural speech. But the steps he has taken so far shows that the speech is meaningless because he is making nonsense of it. He should retrace his steps and go back to his inaugural speech and truly be for nobody and for everybody. This is our appeal.”

Lamenting that the northern part of the country has been favoured in the President’s appointments, Evah added: “Apart from that, to show that there is a hidden agenda, when the former Comptroller General resigned, he handed over to the most senior Customs officer in the person of Dr. John Atte, who happens to come from from Bayelsa State, as Acting Comptroller-General of Customs. Now, he has been sidelined and somebody who is a stranger to the workings of the Customs system was appointed to replace him. this cannot be regarded as a patriotic appointment.”