South-West Muslims criticise Tinubu’s ministerial appointments, says no excuse will be accepted if candidate is omitted
A group of Muslims in the South-Western states of Nigeria has criticised the recent appointment of Ministers by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
President Tinubu had on Thursday, July 27 transmitted a list of 28 Ministers to the National Assembly for confirmation. The list which was delivered to the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio contained prominent names including Wike, El-Rufai, Umahi, among others.
However, in a statement released by the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) on Friday, July 28, the list was criticised to have omitted the name of the preferred candidate of the Muslims in the South-West.
According to MURIC, the preferred candidate of Muslims is Professor Abideen Olaiya.
“The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) can confidently reveal the name that is making waves among Nigerian Muslims at the moment. Muslims North and South of Nigeria are rooting for Professor Abideen Olaiya as one of the ministers that must emerge from the South West,” the statement read.
The Islamic human rights organization thereafter urged the President to make amends by attending to the interests of Muslims in the South-West in the second batch of ministerial appointments, saying that no excuse will be accepted.
“It will be recalled that MURIC had demanded that at least four out of the six ministers from the South West should be Muslims in order to partly make up for the injustice of the past, particularly in the days of former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan when all six ministers from the region were Christians to the chagrin of the majority Muslim population.”
“No excuse can be acceptable for omitting Olaiya’s name in the ministerial list, not competence, not party loyalty, not even diligence or antecedent. We plead that the choice of the Muslim Ummah be respected,” the statement added.
President Tinubu is expected to send a second batch of Ministerial appointments as some states and zones are yet to be considered in the initial list forwarded to the National Assembly.
According to the President’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, the second batch will comprise about 12 or 13 names and will be forwarded to the National Assembly very soon.
“As his letter stated, and was read on the floor of the Senate, the remaining names, not sure how many, probably about 12, maybe 13, will be forwarded to the Senate in the coming days,” the Chief of Staff stated.
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