The presidency has confirmed that out of the 22 security agency appointments made by President Bola Tinubu, two are from the South-South and South-East regions, with each region represented by one appointee.
This partly confirmed the recent assertion by pan-Yoruba organization, Afenifere that the appointment of heads of service agencies by President Bola Tinubu was skewed against the two zones. This is also against the provisions of the Federal Character Act.
Section 14 (3) of the Federal Character Act of the Constitution states as follows, “The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies.”
Sunday Dare, the Special Adviser on Public Communication and Orientation to President Tinubu, who issued a statement responding to allegations of ethnic bias within the administration’s security appointments, shared regional breakdown of the appointments.
According to the regional statistics shared by Dare on his verified X account on Saturday, of the 22 heads of security agencies, eight are from the North West, five from the South West, four from the North Central, three from the North East, and one each from the South-South and South-East.
The two appointees from the southern regions are Major General Emmanuel Undiandeye from the South-South, who serves as Chief of Defence Intelligence, and Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla from the South-East, appointed as Chief of Naval Staff. The distribution, Dare emphasized, reflects the administration’s commitment to equitable representation across Nigeria’s regions.
However, according to Dare’s list, the North-West holds the highest number of security appointments with eight, followed by the South-West with five, and the North-Central with four. The North East, he noted, has three security chiefs, while the South South and South East have one each.
The list clearly showed the two regions, South South and South East were marginalised by the President in disregard of the Federal Character Act in the Nigerian constitution.
Some Nigerians had accused Tinubu of “Yorubanisation”—a term implying favouritism toward the Yoruba ethnic group of South-West following the appointment of Major General Olufemi Oluyede as Acting Chief of Army Staff. Oluyede was appointed to act on behalf of General Taoreed Lagbaja, who is receiving medical treatment abroad.
An exclusive report by SaharaReporters recently showed that sensitive appointments made so far by Tinubu are lopsided as they mainly favoured South-West people. Checks by the newspaper revealed that most members of the President’s kitchen cabinet led by his Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, are from the Southwest region.
While Dare’s list consisted of five names from the South West, Yoruba people appointed by Tinubu to key positions are the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Adeolu Egbetokun; Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja who was recently replaced by Major General Olufemi Oluyede; Director General of the Department of State Services, Mr Adeola Oluwatosin Ajayi; Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Olanipekun Olukoyede and Comptroller-General of Nigerian Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi.
Others are; Comptroller General (CG) of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Kemi Nandap; Commander of the Guards Brigade (Presidential Villa), Brigadier General Adebisi Onasanya; Chief Security Officer (CSO) to President, Rasheed Lawal, who recently replaced Adegboyega Fasasi and Aide-De-Camp (ADC) Nurudeen Yusuf, a Yoruba man from Kwara state.
