One of the most popular phrases among students during our secondary school days was “balanced diet.” Everyone craved for it, though it was not too well defined. It somehow gave us the life-long idea that everything is best when it is “balanced.”
Allegations of balance and imbalance in the Nigerian federation, especially with respect to school admissions, civil service and political appointments have featured in national discourse at various times. Last week, it was again thrust into the front burner by Senator Ali Ndume [APC, Borno South], who said during an Arise TV interview that President Bola Tinubu’s appointments since he came into office nearly two years ago do not reflect the regional and ethnic diversity of Nigeria, euphemistically called “federal character.”
What promoted the allegation from the level of whisper to open discourse, most probably, was the recent appointment of a new Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited [NNPC], compounded two days later by the new line-up of NNPC’s top management. The new GCEO, Bayo Ojulari, hails from Kwara State which, geographically and politically, has been part of the North since colonial times. However, he is also an ethnic Yoruba, which easily fed into long-standing whispers that there is a “Yorubanisation” of top offices under the Tinubu presidency.
In Nigerian political psychology and perceptions, NNPC boss is a very big fish, one of the two “juiciest” executive positions in the country after the Presidency, the other being the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor. Since August 2023, the CBN Governor has been Mr. Yemi Cardoso. Despite his Portuguese-sounding name, he is also ethnically Yoruba, thus feeding regionalists’ charge that the three juiciest Executive positions are in Yoruba hands.
It is not today that this political feeling has pervaded the national political psychology. In 2002, soon after he was removed as Senate President, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo was asked in a television interview why senators think of some Senate committees as “juicy” while others are regarded as backwater. Okadigbo said, “It is not only senators. Nigerians generally think that way. When Senate committee chairmanships or ministerial portfolios are announced, people will, “Oh, they gave us Finance!” or “They only gave us Labour!”
Does this have practical significance? In some ways it does, but even if it does not, it has enormous impact on public perception of an administration’s sense of fairness and on the psychology of working politicians. It is the easiest tool to use in order to paint an administration black in various regions, hence the need for a Presidency to constantly look over its shoulder in this matter of balance and imbalance.
When Senator Ndume went public with his charge, including a list he circulated containing what he said were the lopsided Tinubu appointments, the Presidency moved fast to counter it by releasing a list of appointments it said President Tinubu made since 2023, broken into regions. Critics however lurched on the list and said it was incomplete and also contained errors and duplications, which the Presidency admitted. Secretary to the Government of the Federation [SGF] George Akume’s office then issued a statement insisting that Tinubu has been fair in his appointments and he stopped there, without providing a list. Which was wise of this old civil servant.
Trouble is, number of appointments alone does not imbalance disprove, in Nigerian psychology. Some portfolios are worth more than ten others, as Nigerians see them. Each of Chief of Staff, CBN governor, NNPC boss, Finance Minister, FIRS Chairman, Army Chief, Police Inspector General, Customs Comptroller General, EFCC Chairman, NIMASA boss and Director General of DSS is worth more than all the Chairmen of Federal Medical Centres or even Pro-Chancellors of Federal Universities. Hence the perception of imbalance will continue despite the numbers.
Even though the perception of imbalance had been gaining currency in political whispers since 2023, there were reasons why it was being spoken in whispers. Perception in the South East has been one of the region’s continued marginalization, but insofar as South Eastern voters cast almost all their votes for LP in 2023, it was difficult for the region to demand a juicier share of the apple pie. After all, there is Constitution but there is also what Germans call real politik. If the biggest politicians in a region do not belong to the ruling party or if they are, they did not deliver their areas, then their bargaining position is severely limited.
At best, a region can demand that the Constitutional imperative that every state in the Federation must have at least one minister in the Federal cabinet, must be met. This is easy; a President could easily do this without incorporating a region or a state’s most prominent politicians into his cabinet. One problem leads to another; if ministerial nominees from a certain state or region are second-rate politicians, then they could easily be assigned to less visible portfolios, as ministers of state. Since the Constitution only specifically demanded balance in the appointment of ministers, imbalance could still persist in the appointment of heads of government agencies, many of them juicier than some ministerial portfolios. It was former President Buhari who publicly stated that those who gave him three percent of the vote should not expect balance with those who gave him 97% of their votes.
Nor are Nigerians the only people in the world who think about juicy ministerial portfolios. In 1989 when Poland first held multi-party elections and Solidarity trade union movement defeated the Communist Party in parliamentary elections, the BBC reporter in Warsaw said the Communist Party had agreed to let Solidarity form the government but it will retain the Ministries of Defence, Interior, Foreign Affairs and Finance. The BBC news anchorman in London then asked, “If the Communists will retain those ministries, why did you call it a Solidarity government then?”
Now, while South Eastern voices were somewhat muted because of LP’s electoral sweep of the region in 2023, Northern voices against perceived imbalance were muted for a time only because Buhari administration’s appointments were highly imbalanced during his eight years at the helm. It is said now that at present, President, Senate President, Chief Justice of Nigeria, Chief of Staff, CBN Governor, Army Chief, Police IG, EFCC Chairman, Customs CG and DSS boss are all from the South, all but one of them from Yorubaland. But then, for the greater part of Buhari’s tenure, all those positions, minus CBN governor and, to quote Chief Zebrudaya, “even plus including Secretary to the Government of the Federation and National Security Adviser” were all Northerners. It is said that two wrongs do not make a right; even ten wrongs do not make a right. Precedent is now being set that whoever becomes president in future, people from his region should sweep all the juicy posts.
The difference between the South Eastern and the Northern complaints is that the latter’s votes contributed decisively to Tinubu’s election win in 2023. More so, they will be sorely needed in 2027, unless the President’s political strategists find another bank of regional votes. While the South East is still the proverbial 3% of votes that Buhari said, the North is still the proverbial, maybe not 97%, but 54%.
This matter of imbalance has been argued in Nigeria since early post-colonial times. Right until the 1980s, due to the Southern region’s one-hundred-year head start in Western education, citizens from that part of the country had overwhelming numbers in the public service, especially the technical services such as NEPA, P&T and Railways. This matter came up for major charges and counter charges at the Oputa panel in 2001. However, long years of Northern headship of the Federal Government, military and civilian, ameliorated the imbalance and in some cases, titled it the other way. When Chief Ayo Adebanjo, speaking for Afenifere, charged at the Oputa panel that Yorubas were marginalized in the Army and Airforce, Arewa Consultative Forum’s lawyer Yahaya Mahmood asked him about imbalance in NEPA, NITEL, Railway and federal universities. Adebanjo said, “Did you hear me mention those ones? I mentioned the ones that I have problems with. You can go ahead and mention the ones that you have problems with.”
The battle for balance at the 1978-79 Constituent Assembly, chaired by Justice Udo Udoma, led, at the insistence of Northern delegates, to enshrining the federal character principle into the 1979 and all subsequent constitutions. Was it worth it? From the beginning, critics of federal character said it sacrificed merit in appointments and school admissions. Some of the country’s leading thinkers however did not think so. At a seminar on federal character at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies [NIPSS] in 1980, Professor Godwin Sogolo said federal character did not lower any standards because any policy designed to achieve peace and stability in a diverse polity is the highest standard, and there is no standard higher than that.
The defunct West Africa magazine said in a 1980 article that President Shehu Shagari was happy to be the one to implement federal character, which in the Second Republic was elaborated to install quota systems in school admissions as well as appointments into the civil service, military and security services. What about in politics? We read in magazine articles in the early 1980s that National Party of Nigeria [NPN], which was the first party to adopt zoning of party and political offices, went so far as to pair some federal ministries so that when the North takes one, the South takes the other. For example, Finance and Petroleum should be so paired, as should CBN and NNPC, Defence and Foreign Affairs, Army and Police etc.
Diversity in appointments, even in the circles closest to a president, has huge political and other merits. Not only does it send a good message to countrymen, but it also helps the leaders to get a good grasp of problems from all regions, escape from stereotypes that we imbibe when growing up in any region of the country, and also have around you people who can move quickly to solve regional problems as they arise.
Since 1979, some presidents have been more sensitive to balance than others, I think. For example, Shagari’s Chief of Staff was Michael Prest from Bendel; Obasanjo’s Chief of Staff was Major General Abdullahi Mohammed while Umaru Yar’adua’s Chief of Staff [for three months] was Gbolade Osinowo. Presidency may issue lists to counter allegations of imbalance in number of appointments, but in the public perception, all appointments are not equal. And it is perception, not necessarily reality, that guides political behavior.
