By Ada Okafor
With President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s recent approval of the nomination of Olayemi Cardoso to serve as the substantive new Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), some 48 hours after appointing Zachaeus Adedeji as the acting chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) stated that there are strong perception that the President is pushing an unseemly pro-ethnic agenda became worryingly stronger.
Adedeji is to “serve in an acting capacity for 90 days before his subsequent confirmation as the substantive chairman of FIRS for a term of four years in the first instance.”
In a statement by Emmanuel Onwubiko, the group noted that “with a little over 100 days on the saddle, the President’s appointments have shown he appears to have special consideration for people from his South-West region, especially those with links to Lagos State”.
It added that “if President Tinubu’s appointment of new services sparked new hope and drew deserved plaudits in that it recognised the nation’s diversity, his subsequent appointments curiously depart from that template.
“That the disastrous, previous administration of General Muhammadu Buhari, rtd, towed a visionless, divisive path, in the overwhelming tribalistic appointments it made, should never excuse this course that fundamentally degrades the legitimate dream of a new, progressive, inclusive Nigerian state”.
HURIWA noted that “today, the stakes are extremely high and Nigerians are mindful that a failure to achieve democratic stability, through a meritorious, transparent, inclusive governance process may imperil the country’s future as a coherent state.
“Mere political rewards and seeming ethnic nationalism should not drive the national journey. It is a perilous, avoidable option.
“The Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), strongly believes that this is the wrong path to thread, especially against the background of deep mistrust, misery, political and economic dislocations brazenly birthed by the predecessor administration.
“We believe that like Caesar’s Wife, the Tinubu administration ought to be above suspicion”.
