Presidency apologizes over errors on appointment lists

The presidency has issued a formal apology for the numerous error and inaccuracies that marred the President Bola Tinubu’s appointment list while promising to update it as soon as possible.

This follows criticism from Nigerians including lawmaker representing Borno South senatorial district, Ali Ndume, who accused President Bola Tinubu of limited his appointment of Ministers, Special Advisers and others into public offices to certain region of the country.

Ndume alleged that Tinubu is fond of favoring his tribesmen and women over Nigerians from other ethnic groups saying this act violates the Federal character of principle appointment.

In response to this criticism which was described as a ‘lopsided appointments’ by the Borno South Senatorial lawmaker who shares same party with the president, the Special Adviser on Media & Public Communication to Tinubu, Sunday Dare, issued an apology message on Thursday while admitting the errors.

Recall that the Special Adviser to the President, Bayo Onanuga, had faulted side talkers especially Ndume for questioning the appointees including that of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.

According to Bayo, the lawmaker, rather than offer constructive criticism that aids the administration to achieve desired purpose, was often stoking divisive narratives while stating his observations were half baked criticism.

”President Tinubu is deeply committed to fostering a government that embraces all Nigerians, irrespective of their ethnic or regional affiliations. He aims to harness our nation’s diverse strengths to achieve a common goal: building a prosperous Nigeria.

”The President’s appointments are—and will continue to be—based on merit, integrity, geographical spread and a demonstrable capacity to serve the Nigerian people, not Ndume’s cherry-picked tribal arithmetic.

However, Dare in his statement acknowledged there’s were mistakes in the list in contrary to the previous one made public while noting that it would be adjusted.

He said, “We have noticed a number of errors in the list of appointments tweeted. We are sorry. We will provide at an updated list later. Thank you”.

The list showed that the President had appointed 29 people from the South West, his region, 35 from the North West, 22 from the South-South, 16 from the South East, 25 from North Central, and 24 from the North East.