Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has absolved President Muhammadu Buhari of allegations of nepotism and clannishness levelled against him.
He said that contrary to popular insinuations that Buhari was surrounding himself with Muslims and Hausa-Fulani people, the current administration actually have more Christians and Southerners.
According to his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, the vice president made this known while interacting with some journalists and bloggers in Lagos on Friday.
The vice president said, “Look at the cabinet, for example, from the point of view of religion, it has an equal number – 18 Christians, 18 Muslims; but, we have the Secretary to the Government of the Federation as well as the Head of Service who are Christians.
“So, we have 20 Christians to 18 Muslims; that’s the structure of the cabinet.
“So, if you take that narrative you may argue that perhaps the Christians have the upper hand; that’s a possible narrative.
“Let us look a little deeper into that, so there are those who may argue, for example, that the North has an upper hand or perhaps one section has an upper hand in the cabinet as one narrative.
“The South-East, for example, has five states. Four of the south-eastern states have senior ministers; all of them, except one, who is Minister of State for Education.”
However, when he was reminded that Buhari had no choice since the constitution was clear on appointment of ministers across the states, Osinbajo said that Buhari was free to assign portfolios as he saw fit.
He added, “In the North, seven northern states have no senior minister, including the President’s home state, Katsina. Now, there are those who will say, if you are nepotistic; surely seven northern states have no senior minister. It’s a narrative depending on how you want to run it.
“I give you another example; I’m from the South-West. There are people who will say ‘I am from the South-West, the North has everything.’ The South-West, for the first time in the history of this country, has one minister who is in charge of three ministries: Power, Works and Housing. The ministers of Finance and Communications are also from the South-West.
“These are critical ministries. You can run the narrative in whichever way that you choose. There are those who will say, for instance, look at the number of CEOs of agencies of government; the highest number of CEOs in our nation today comes from Ogun State, the state has the largest number. There are those who will say that’s my state. So you can run the narrative depending on how you want to run it.”
Osinbajo further noted that the president had vowed to look into allegations of nepotism in appointments and would rectify them if found to be true.