Northern youths urge Tinubu to avoid Buhari’s mistakes

A group of young people from the north of Nigeria have appealed to President Bola Tinubu to avoid what they term biassed appointments, similar to his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari.

The young people, who belong to the Northern Youth Leaders Forum (NYLF), admitted that northerners have no right to complain about Tinubu’s alleged ‘lopsided’ appointments but expressed their view that the country should not continue in the same way.

Some northern leaders have accused President Tinubu of allegedly favouring the south in his selection of appointees. For example, Ahmad Gumi, a Muslim cleric, alleged that Tinubu had appointed more Southern Christians into key positions while ignoring northerners who, he said, helped him gain power.

Speaking to the press in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State, on Sunday, the National President of NYLF, Elliot Afiyo, said that Tinubu is widening the gap of alleged biassed appointments inherited from Buhari.

Afiyo revealed that Buhari, from 2015 to 2023, created a biassed appointment gap of 80 percent for the north and 20 percent for the south.

However, he urged Tinubu not to follow the steps of Buhari in choosing his appointees, “because the country must not continue in error.”

According to him, previous Nigerian leaders have, since independence, engaged in unfair appointments, favouring their zones at the expense of others.

The youth leader maintained that former President Olusegun Obasanjo tried to narrow the gap when he returned to power in 1999.

“But Buhari came in and created the gap to be 20/80. And even the northerners that they were saying that Buhari appointed were not northerners per se. We are now seeing that the appointments by President Tinubu are tilting towards the South.

“I would say northerners don’t have the right to complain that the appointments or placements are biased. We don’t have the right to complain.

“But as advanced citizens, I ask: can we continue like this? Where are we going as a nation? So, there is a need for us to balance it,” he stated.