Osinbajo: Federal Appointments Should Be On Merit, Not Ethnicity

The Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, has urged Nigerians to concern themselves with merit and not ethnicity whenever appointments are made at the federal level.

Osinbajo was reacting to recent agitations by various groups on the issues bordering on alleged marginalisation of a section of the country.

The Vice President, who spoke on Thursday with members of the ‘Situation Room’, a civil society organisation, said most marginalisation allegations do not hold water.

“What I am saying is that we must drop this tendency of becoming ethnic warlords and forge a national consensus on the use of merit in deciding appointments in the country,” he said.

Osinbajo said while most APC controlled North-West states hold junior minister portfolios, the South-eastern states can brag of having several senior ministers in the federal cabinet.

The Vice President also noted that the South-eastern states dominated the composition of Service Chiefs under the Goodluck Jonathan administration, hence cannot justify claims of marginalisation in that regard.

Speaking further, Osinbajo urged Nigerians to support government’s anti-corruption fight, saying the required push by citizens “is not strong enough.”

“I don’t think that the people, especially the civil society have shown enough outrage that one expects in order to consistently beam searchlight on the perpetrators.

“People come and ask where are the convictions but I say where are the campaigns? We should be able to point out these persons so that they will not be able to spend these monies.

“If we are sufficiently outraged about the delays being orchestrated by defence lawyers intentionally to frustrate such corruption cases, everyone will hail the move by the Chief Justice of Nigeria,” he said.