Jobless politicians criticizing Buhari's appointment - Festus Keyamo.

Festus Keyamo

Lawyer and human rights activist, Festus Keyamo, has described those criticising President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointments as “few jobless politicians.”

In a statement issued on Friday, Keyamo stated that those politicians depended only on government appointments as their means of livelihood.

He said, “The so-called ‘uproar’ over the perceived ‘lopsided’ appointments made so far by President 
Buhari is nothing but an orchestrated frustration of a few jobless politicians who depend only on government appointments as their means of livelihood and, of course, the noise of the latest opposition party in town.

“The majority of Nigerians want to see good governance, pure and simple, and care less about the ethnic origin of those appointed into positions.

“My worry is that the decade-long general division of government positions into ‘juicy’ and ‘non-juicy’, and the mentality that these few ‘juicy’ positions must be shared equally among the major ethnic groups was nothing but a contraption of the old order from which we have just liberated ourselves.”

Keyamo added that all government appointments posed an equal challenge to those appointed as a call to higher service of the country, saying that all public positions come with an equal responsibility to be honest, forthright and dedicated.

According to him, describing some positions as “juicy” and others as “non-juicy” is another way of identifying positions that have enough money from which to steal from those that are “dry.”

Therefore, any agitation from a section of the country to get “juicy” positions, the rights activist said, was only an agitation for their kinsmen to be appointed to steal enough from which they would benefit.

He said, “I therefore unreservedly condemn, in the strongest of terms, the so-called ‘uproar’ about ‘juicy positions’ going only to a certain section of this country. All sections of this country should be happy and content with whatever positions that the President deems fit, at the end of the day, to give to their kinsmen.

“After all, the President still has a long way to go with appointments. He has not even filled up to five percent of available positions. Please, let the President be.