- Showunmi uncomfortable with perceived southwestern expansion in Tinubu’s government.
- Showunmi claims administration made serious missteps
Segun Showunmi, a leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has criticised President Bola Tinubu for the way he is appointing his cabinet, alleging that he is not being fair to the southeast zone.
According to Showunmi, the administration has engaged in a significant number of actions that could be viewed as grave errors.
On Wednesday, he stated the claim while participating in the Politics Today programme on Channels Television.
Showunmi admitted that he is a little uneasy about the prospect of his people (the southwest) obtaining more influential positions in Tinubu’s administration.
He said, “You know I am a Yoruba man. Ironically, I have known Asiwaju for years. So there must be some kind of soft spot there. But I have tried very hard to say “let’s wait until hundred days”. Why? Because there’s a tradition and culture of “let them take hundred days to settle down”.
“But unfortunately for this administration, they have done quite a lot of things that could be considered as serious missteps.
“And they have done it in such a brazen and hurried manner that people are now forced to say no.
“I have seen the kind of people he is putting in his cabinet, and I laughed at him; few brilliant persons but a few excessively recycled characters. If you come in this country and you want to do a paradigm shift, and your paradigm shift includes former governors.
“There are 200 million people in this country. That particular party (APC) has been in charge for the last eight years. Whatever they are trying to clean now, their party caused it, their government caused it.
“I have looked at the people he is putting together. I am a little bit uncomfortable with the fact that, if I may be honest with you, both of us Yoruba men, it’s beginning to seem that our people will get the best of the cherries. I can tell you the things we have already gotten and the things we are likely to get.
“We are in charge of customs; we are in charge of police; we are in charge of army; we are in charge of CBN; we are in charge of FIRS; we are in charge of taxation; we are in charge of appropriation.
“Have we become such a people that we can only be fair when we are talking about other people…. We have begun to see a pattern that all of the cream is coming to us. And what we would not accept from former President Buhari, who was fairer to us than he was to his people, we must be brave enough to say that this is not even the right thing for us. We are not suddenly going to become parochial people who insist that all of the things in the country….
“Does it not prick your soul that you’re putting ten in one place; nine in one place; seven in one place and five in one place. And you are giving the southeast (Igbos) five. I can tell you for free, there’s no mental capacity, validation, education, authentication that you are looking for in the world that you would not find Ndi Igbo, either in Nigeria or in the diaspora. Why is it now you’re telling me that you can only get five from them? These are the issues”.
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