The Presidency has issued a statement clarifying the errors found in the list of appointments made by President Bola Tinubu since May 29, 2023, after it attracted criticism for its incompleteness.
The list was initially shared to address claims of regional imbalance in the President’s appointments, an issue raised by Senator Ali Ndume of Borno South. Ndume, an All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmaker, had alleged that President Tinubu’s appointments violated the federal character principle during an interview with Arise Television.
The Presidency swiftly denied the allegation, and in response, Sunday Dare, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communication, released a detailed breakdown of the appointments by geopolitical zones.
The released list showed the distribution of appointees: 29 from the South West, 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. However, the list soon faced scrutiny, with critics pointing out that it failed to include significant figures such as the President’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, and Kemi Nandap, the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service. The absence of these individuals raised concerns over the South East’s representation and reinforced the narrative of a regional imbalance.
In the face of growing debate on social media, Dare acknowledged the errors and took to his X (formerly Twitter) account on Thursday, offering an apology and promising to release an updated, corrected version of the list.
“We have noticed several errors in the list of appointments posted earlier. We apologize for this and will release an updated list shortly. Thank you,” Dare tweeted.
Despite the apology, the spokesperson did not offer an explanation for why certain key names, like Gbajabiamila’s, were omitted from the list.