By Henry Umoru & Joseph Erunke

ABUJA — As reactions continue to trail the appointments made so far by President Muhammadu Buhari since assumption of office, senators and members of the House of Representatives from the North-East geo-political zone have thrown their weight behind the president’s action.

Buhari

The legislators, under the aegis of North-East National Assembly Caucus, at a press conference in Abuja, yesterday, said the criticisms over the appointments were unnecessary, insisting that strict adherence to federal character principle in the appointments made so far by the president was not necessary if the country must progress even as they accused the previous administration of Dr Goodluck Jonathan of also engaging in lopsided appointments.

Chairman of the group and senator representing Gombe Central Senatorial zone, Danjuma Goje,who read a prepared text before newsmen, insisted that the change of pattern in appointments made by the president was what the country needed at the moment to progress.

Goje added that the leadership style of the president since assumption of duty has “left no one in doubt that Nigeria is finally on the path of re-discovery following many years of neglect and outright inept leadership.

“The president undoubtedly has been setting precedents in diverse ways even in a short time which has earned him respect and the country recognition by the international community.

“Fellow Nigerians, it is high time we got it right. It is not about where a man comes from but about what he can deliver especially in the interest of his people.

“President Barack Obama started with over 20 of his Harvard classmates and David Cameron of Britain started with most of his schoolmates. This has in no way made the news in those countries because they had their eyes set on the bigger national picture.

“Back home in Nigeria, we recall that most key appointments in the last administration especially that of the Chief of Staff to the President, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Special Adviser on Media, Special Adviser on National Assembly Matters and other key appointments were from the southern region and nobody made huge cry about it.”

He, however, appealed to Nigerians that the administration was just about hundred days in office, assuring that “no section of the country will be marginalized.”

“If Nigeria must move forward, we need to make a choice, either we decide on an ethnic free future and move to greater heights or we continue to hold on to ethnic sentiments, stateism and zoning and remain backward. We must shun all recessive agents and embrace change in the interest of democracy,” he said.