Northern Elders Backs Ndigbo’s Appointment Appeal

Northern Elders have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to balance the equation by reviewing service chiefs’ appointments to reflect the nation’s federal character principle.

The elders operating under the aegis of Coalition of Northern Elders for Peace and Development CNEPD stated this in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Engr. Zana Goni.

Recall that Ohaneze Ndigbo had noted that Buhari omitted Igbo from his appointments, urging him to appoint the most senior Igbo in the force as IGP so that the region can be included in service.

The group blasted president Buhari for excluding South East from the list of Tuesday’s appointment, saying the action against the Igbo Nation was adverse to the unity and one-Nigeria project of Nigeria’s founding fathers.

The group, therefore, requested the president to equalize the appointment and urged the president to reexamine the appointment to reflect fairness and equity. They, however, thanked the president for relieving the former service chiefs which had been a popular call.

“We completely throw our weight behind Ohanaeze Ndigbo on their position over the appointments of the new service chiefs. We vehemently appeal to Mr. President for a review of the appointments to accommodate our Igbo brothers from the South East region in line with the federal character principle of the country. We are absolutely sure that taking this action will make the designers of our country happy where they are watching”.

” We received with great excitement the news about the sacking of the former service chiefs of the country by Mr. President. It is quite commendable that the president finally listened to the clarion call by Nigerians to that effect.

“However, the composition of the service chiefs greeted us with mixed feelings and sincere concerns. We strongly believe that the list does not meet a fair list as it is lacking in fairness, justice, and equity to the south easterners.”

“We thought some lessons would have been learned by the Presidency by now that the Igbos too, are also Nigerians and deserve to be fairly and godly treated.”

“How can there be an appointment of two sets of service chiefs without any Igbo person among them? Is this fair? What exactly has the Igbo people done to deserve this kind of unfair treatment?”They asked.
The group said, “Our careful checks revealed that Igbos have senior and very qualified military officers in the Navy, Army, and Airforce who are serving faithfully in their various capacities! What is their sin?”

“While we must state clearly that the appointment of service chiefs is the prerogative of the president as he can choose to appoint anyone from any zone, we wish to ask that what made the other geo-political zone more important than the South East?”