President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to appoint Muslims as ministers of Interior and Defence has been frowned at by the Human Rights Writers Association Of Nigeria (HURIWA).
The group decried the development, arguing that Buhari’s move to appoint Muslims in the aforementioned ministries in a heterogeneous society like Nigeria, contravened section 42(1) of the constitution of Nigeria, which prohibits discrimination.
HURIWA in a statement issued on Wednesday by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, and National Media Affairs Director, Zainab Yusuf, also condemned the domination of juicy offices by politicians from Northwest Nigeria.
The group’s statement reads, “Mr. Pesident must be a president of nigeria not a President of APC and he must be a statesman especially now that he is ruling for the last tenure. He should leave a legacy of commitment to service and patriotism.
“We are not happy that most of the cabinet appointments are cornered to the northwest.
“The northwest cornered virtually 50% of the juicy ministries and all of them are senior ministers and he just gave IMO and Abia a minister for states. It is unfair because the igbo population in Nigeria is not less than 50million and constitutionally, either people vote for you or not, you must appoint one minister from each state of the federation.
‘Why will Mr president try to repeat the mistake of his first term where he concentrated all his appointments to Muslims where he has Minister of Petroleum, all those heading departments as service chiefs, national security adviser, NIA, DSS, Custom, Immigration, Prison, all Muslims which is quite unfortunate.
“Mr president should not repeat the mistakes he made again unless he is not prepared to bequeath his legacy of statemanship and patriotism to Nigerians. Unless he is prepared to remain a regional leader of the north when he leaves Office,” the statement added.
