Omokri reveals why Tinubu’s government inclusive

A former presidential aide, Reno Omokri, has praised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for running an inclusive government that will enhance the country’s unity and stability.

Omokri, in a statement yesterday, said contrary to claims in some quarters, Tinubu’s recent appointments reflect the federal character principles enshrined in the 1999 Constitution as amended.

A Northern group, the Northern Elders Forum, and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, recently criticised the president’s recent appointments as lopsided.

However, Omokri dismissed the claim as untrue, explaining that available records showed Tinubu’s appointments complied with the constitutional provisions on federal character.

“Both the appointment of security chiefs and ministers complied with the Constitution’s federal character principles provisions,” he said, adding, “The mischief makers took the new appointments out of context.”

“In their desperate attempts to provoke a military coup, which is their ultimate goal, these elements have carefully and manipulatively curated all the positions occupied by persons of Southwest origin without balancing those held by persons from other geopolitical zones to paint a picture that does not exist,” he stated.

Omokri explained, “In addition to the Ministry of Defence, Nigeria has 20 security and law enforcement agencies, including the Office of the National Security Adviser, the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Air Force, the Nigerian Navy, the Nigerian Police Force, the Department of State Service, the Nigerian Intelligence Agency, and the Defence Intelligence Agency.

“The paramilitary forces are the Nigerian Immigration Service, the Nigerian Customs Service, the Nigerian Correctional Service ( formerly known as the Nigerian Prison Service), the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Federal Road Safety Commission, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, the Federal Fire Service, and the National Youth Service Corps, which, unknown to most Nigerians, is a reserve force that can be called up during emergencies.”

He said officers from the Southwest headed only the Nigerian Army, the Police, Customs, the DSS, and the EFCC, pointing out that this was contrary to the lopsided situation that existed.

The former presidential aide said, “If that is their argument, what would they say about the immediate past government headed by President Muhammadu Buhari, where the leaders of the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary, as well as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Chief of Staff to the President, the heads of the Defence Ministry, Attorney General of the Federation, Army, Police, NSA, DSS, NIA, DMI, DIA, NPS, NCS, NIS and EFCC, were all simultaneously Northern Muslim men?

“The fact remains that under President Tinubu, our defence architecture is balanced, which is why, for the first time in eight years, we have a person from the Southeast as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in the person of the Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Emmanuel Ikechukwu Ogalla.”

On appointing new ministers, Omokri argued that it was constitutionally impossible for any President, no matter how sectional, to disregard the Federal Character Commission Act because they must appoint a minister from every state.

He pointed out that the claim that the President appointed 11 ministers from the Southwest was erroneous as the representative of Kwara State, though Yoruba, was from the Northcentral.

Omokri said, “The North of Nigeria has the majority of Ministers in the present cabinet, including what may be referred to as the most prized ministries: the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Police Affairs Ministry.”

He said the President was systematically reforming the governance structure and explained that Nigeria would deepen its federalism from next month as the local governments will receive their Federation Account Allocation directly.

According to him, “Such reforms, along with others like the removal of oil receipts from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited and handing them to the Central Bank of Nigeria, and the removal of fuel subsidies, which have stripped fuel importers and cross-border smugglers of their illicit source of income, have created powerful enemies for the Tinubu administration. These carpetbaggers will stop at nothing to try to incite an illegal and undemocratic regime change.

“They tried it with the failed Days of Rage protests when they went to military barracks to recruit soldiers and flooded some parts of Nigeria with foreign flags. Now that those false flag antics have failed, their next antic is to gaslight Nigerians about so-called Yoruba dominance. A dominance that only exists in their jaundiced imaginations and machinations.”