The Presidency has publicly released hard facts to counter the allegation that President Bola Tinubu’s administration is biased towards the South-West regarding appointments in the security sector.
Last week, the President named Major General Olufemi Oluyede as Acting Chief of Army Staff (COAS), to hold forth for the substantive COAS, General Tahoreed Lagbaja, who has been away from the country treating an undisclosed ailment.
Just like Lagbaja and Tinubu, Oluyede hails from the South-West and while the first two are from Osun and Lagos States, respectively, the latter is an indigene of Ekiti State.
This tribal affinity has led to insinuations in some quarters that the President has perfected the Yorubanisation (a term which loosely interprets as favouring the Yoruba) of the security sector at the expense of other regions.
The accusers argued that Tinubu could have opted for an equally competent general to deputise for Lagbaja instead of another person from the South-West
Presidency debunks ‘Yorubanisation’ claim
Reacting to the criticisms, Sunday Dare, Special Adviser to the President on Public Communications and Orientation, published a list of the heads of security agencies appointed by the current administration.
The post, shared on his X account on Saturday, November 2, 2024, showed that the North West has the highest number of appointees (eight), followed by the South West (five) and North Central (four).
“Facts do not lie. Below we see laid bare the facts about the regional outlook of President Tinubu’s appointments within 20 security agencies. The label of him favouring Yorubas in the Security set-up does not fit. Nigeria we hail thee!,” Dare captioned the post.
