Ambassadorial Nomination: Buhari Sidelines Govs, APC Leaders Kick
*Osinbajo gets one out of 46 slots
*President offers Saraki Kwara slot
*Kyari, Kingibe play prominent role in selection process
President Muhammadu Buhari has incurred the wrath of leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) over the choice of nominees for non-career ambassadors. Most of the 23 APC governors are angry because their candidates for the ambassadorial posts were rejected by the Presidency.
It was learnt that Vice- President Yemi Osinbajo was given only one out of the 46 ambassadorial slots submitted to the Senate for confirmation last week.Governors, APC leaders and ministers, who are party leaders in many states, especially where the governing party is not in control, were sidelined in the appointments. Senate President, Bukola Saraki, was this time lucky as the president conceded one of the two ambassadorial nominees – Prof. Mohammed G. Yisa – from Kwara State, to him.
New Telegraph learnt that the Chief of Staff to the president, Mallam Abba Kyari and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, played prominent role in the selection process. Even the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, was said to have no input in the list of the nominees.
A source said that Onyeama cannot complain because the president’s chief of staff facilitated his appointment as minister. Kyari and Onyeama are friends and classmates at Cambridge. Onyeama was Kyari’s best man at his wedding. One of the APC governors lamented that the president failed to carry party leaders along in his appointment.
“The appointment of the ambassadors is a continuation of the policy to sideline the governors. When the minister from my state was picked, I was not consulted.And when it is time for the ambassadorial appointment, they did not consider my nominee. This is a party we all worked to build.
I have spoken to quite a number of my colleaguegovernors, it is the same thing. “To us, we believe the president has his own game plan. I’m sure he is building a separate structure for himself. When you sideline governors and party leaders in appointments, then it means you are up to something.
I can tell you conveniently that most of the party leaders, especially governors, are not happy with the president over his choice of appointment,” a governor told New Telegraph at the weekend. A cross section of party leaders told New Telegraph at the weekend that the president is treating them like outcasts in the party when it comes to appointments.
A member of the APC National Working Committee (NWC) told this newspaper that he was shocked with the list of ambassadorial nominees. “Initially I thought my governor nominated the representative from my state. But I was shocked when the governor called me to inquire if I did the nomination.
I told him I knew nothing about the ambassadorial nominee. He was shocked. The governor told me that his nominee too was rejected. So, this is the situation we have found ourselves,” the NWC member told New Telegraph last night. Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State confirmed the frustration of APC members over the appointment made so far by the president.
“Most members of the party feel that they have not been carried along. I know that many of them are complaining every day,” Okorocha stated in an interview with journalists last week Sunday. The ambassadorial appointment is next to that of ministers in order of importance. Buhari, last week, sent 46 names to the Senate for confirmation as ambassadors.
The president had set three criteria to be met before getting the ambassadorial appointment, especially that the nominees must be people who have sacrificed for the APC: those who contested and lost in the 2015 elections; people who lost in party primaries, but didn’t leave the party and worked for the party; and leading members of the governing party.
