The Christian Rights Agenda (CRA) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to review his appointments in the spirit of equity, inclusiveness, national cohesion as well as the overall interest of peace and peaceful co-existence and federal character as enshrined in Section 14 Sub-section (3) of the 1999 Constitution.CRA in a statement by the Interim Director of Publicity, Tom Chiahemen, in Abuja, said available data showed the President’s appointments was heavily skewed against Christians, especially northern Christians, even as the group challenged the Presidency to make public the entire list of all federal agencies and parastatals as well as their heads.CRA, while noting that appointments such as personal assistants and special assistants cannot be equated with those of heads of parastatal and agencies, decried the fact that for the first time since Nigeria’s independence Christians were not adequately represented in all arms and agencies of the federal government.
According to Chiahemen, for a nation that claims secularity as a principle, this development is not only worrisome but a precursor to a feeling of marginalisation and its consequences.”The president ought to see himself as father of the nation but his body language and appointments since 2015 have left much to be desired. For the first time in our political history, all the three arms of government are headed by Muslims to wit: The Executive is headed by President Buhari, the Legislature is headed by Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan, and the Judiciary is headed by Justice Mohammed Tanko.”… The situation is even worse in the legislature as both chambers of the National Assembly are not just headed by Muslims but the House of Representatives is completely and totally in the hands of Muslims with the Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Majority Leader and the Chief Whip all Muslims. In this circumstance, we may not be wrong to conclude that the coast is now clear for anti-Christian laws and other legislative resolutions to pass through this 9th Assembly unhindered.”The CRA notes with concern, that for the first time since 1999, when Nigeria returned to civilian rule there are only two northern Christians in the Federal Executive Council (FEC) as ministers out of 24 ministers from the northern part of the country. They are George Akume (Special Duties) and Mrs. Pauline Tallen (Women Affairs), from Benue and Plateau states respectively.”Worse still is the fact that these two very low members of the cabinet are assigned to what the federal government itself regards as “Grade C” ministries. All the remaining 22 are all Muslims. Not only that, Buhari for the first time since 1999 also appointed two senior ministers from the same states: Defense and Agriculture both from Kano state and Finance and Environment from Kaduna state, who are all Muslims from the same geo-political zone (North west) as the President.”Similarly, in Kwara state, the two ministers: Alhaji Lai Mohammed and Senator Gbemisola Saraki are also Muslims just as in Bauchi state with Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, and the Minister of State for Trade and Investment, Hajiya Maryam Katagum, are also Muslims.”In Kaduna state in particular, since 1999, it has been the convention that where the Governor is a Muslim the minister is appointed from Southern Kaduna to balance the equation and there are many qualified southern Kaduna Christian who are APC members and worked for Buhari’s election and are still in the APC but have been left in the cold.”In the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) where the minister is a northern Muslim, the minister of state has always been a southern Christian. However, under Buhari we have the Minister of the FCT, Alhaji Mohammed Musa Bello, and the Minister of State, Hajiya Ramatu Tijjani, as northern Muslims from Adamawa and Kogi states respectively.”CRA further stated that: “This is unprecedented in our history. On the whole, out of the 44 ministers in Nigeria, only 16 are Christians while 28 are Muslims.
This huge disparity in the constitution of the Federal cabinet is not only the first of its kind in Nigeria, it is a dangerous precedent to say the least.”The group said: “We urge President Buhari to review these skewed and one-sided appointments in the spirit of equity, inclusiveness, national cohesion as well as the overall interest of peace and peaceful co-existence and Federal Character as enshrined in Section 14 Sub-section (3) of the 1999 Constitution which states that, “The composition of the government of the federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few state or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies.”
