By Abiola Olawale
Senator Ede Dafinone, the senator representing Delta Central senatorial district of Delta state in the Senate has raised concerns on what he regards as a disproportionate allocation of political appointments affecting Delta Central in particular and Delta State at large.
During a gathering of the All Progressives Congress (APC) South-South Zonal Executive Committee Meeting at the Metropolitan Hotel in Calabar, Cross Rivers State, Dafinone expressed concern that the support of Delta Central Senatorial District for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the last General Election has not been adequately reciprocated in terms of political appointments.
According to him, even those who got appointments from Delta State are not members of the ruling APC.
The Senator expressed his disappointment especially with the recently released list of appointments into Federal Tertiary Institutions’ Governing Boards and Councils, which allocated only four slots to Delta State, excluding his Senatorial zone,Delta Central, which is not equitable.
He wondered why Delta State only received 4 appointments into the governing boards and councils when the state could have received at least 15 if appointments were equally and equitably distributed.
He urged the committee to bring this to the President’s attention, highlighting the need for special consideration for states like Delta state in the South-South region which have no sitting Governors of APC extraction
He said: “The need for more federal appointments at the state. Governor Otu mentioned that those who work must be rewarded, in Delta State we call it a ‘workshop’. That those who work must chop, but we are not seeing that. We are seeing appointments going to those people that worked against us.
“We are seeing appointments going to PDP members. We are the party at the centre but our supporters are not feeling it at all. We are not seeing any appointment that merits the work that was done.
“In Delta State, the areas that didn’t vote for the president are the areas getting the one or two appointments that we are seeing.
“The attention of the president must be drawn to the fact that the states or South-South states that don’t have an APC sitting Governors should be given special recognition.
“The last list that came out for the governing councils, we have 4 or 5 appointments, where if it is shared equally we should have 15. Where did our slots go to? This is just unfair”
It would be recalled that Tinubu had unveiled fresh names of reconstituted Governing Councils and Boards of federal universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
The new governing boards and councils lists include names such as Chief Bisi Akande, a former governor of Osun State and a long-standing ally of Tinubu; General Ike Nwachukwu, a retired Nigerian Army general, two-times Foreign Minister of Nigeria and military governor of old Imo state; Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and a former Minister of Defence; Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, a former Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and a three-term Senator, and Senate leader, representing Cross River Central Senatorial District of Cross River State in the Nigerian Senate. They were appointed as chairpersons of respective universities.
