Former Senator, Shehu Sani, has urged President Bola Tinubu to prioritise competence over tribe when making appointments into government.
“I will advise President Tinubu to be careful not to make the mistakes of President Buhari, and I believe he is experienced to understand this,” Sani said to Channels TV on Sunday, June 30.
“Under President Buhari, you have ministers that were appointed into office for the whole of eight years; they were with him for the first tenure and the second tenure, and there was no cabinet reshuffle, no removal. Even if there was a removal, it takes three to four months to replace a minister. That was the way the country was governed.
“Under Buhari, we have seen nepotism at its peak where people were appointed into office and left there even if they did nothing.
“Service chiefs were retained in office despite their failures, and by retaining them, you destroyed the careers of those behind them. For many years, many officers were retired to appoint one person.”
Sani said if Tinubu is interested in results, competence should be his watchword.
“If this country has to move forward, we must treat the issue of competency as the qualification for appointment,” he said.
Sani also condemned the recent suicide bombings in Borno State, in the North-East geopolitical zone of the country, saying it was a continuation of the handiwork of Boko Haram insurgents and “a message that we should be vigilant and not complacent”.
“The expectation by many people was that when there is an opportunity to have someone take over the reins of leadership that comes from our own part of the country and understands our problem, that the problem would be solved.
“At a certain time in the history of this country, all the security apparatus, from the Army, the Navy, the police, the Air Force, the Civil Defence, even paramilitary institutions like Customs, Immigration, the Prison Service, even the DSS (Department of State Services) were all manned by northerners but what has come out of that? The situation is that it has become worse,” he said.