Muhammad Salisu
The people of Jos North local government area of Plateau State, who are predominantly Muslims, have cried out over what they described as marginalisation in the ministerial nomination by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Recall that Mr Buhari had nominated Paulen Tallen for ministerial appointment, who hails from Southern Plateau, the same Senatorial district with Governor Simon Lalong.
However, in a statement on Friday, the chairman of the Jos North chapter of the APC, Sani Gangare, decried the alleged neglect and political imbalance meted on the people of the area by the President.
He said: “We read President Buhari’s list of ministerial nominations with great shock because it neglected our collective hard work that resulted in electing him as President in 2015 and 2019.
“Despite our massive support, we feel neglected with the non-inclusion of our people by him for appointments,” he added.
He noted that as executive members of the APC, they are deeply saddened over the non-inclusion of their sons and daughters into Mr Buhari’s cabinet.
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“Mr President is aware that many of our teeming youths have either lost their lives or incurred several degrees of injuries and other economic lost for supporting him since he sojourned into partisan politics from 2003 to date.
“In Jos North, we did not only canvass for him but have consistently voted him massively in whichever party he went.
“In 2019, we maintained the same political posture and gave him 93,800 votes and yet our efforts are now glaringly again being neglected with the appointment of someone from Shendam local government whose votes were only 38,196,” he lamented.
Mr Gangare added: “We can make bold to say that the posture of the Presidency towards us in Jos North is not only a grievous neglect, but also a deliberate step towards creating a political imbalance within the state.”
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The party chairman, however, commended Governor Lalong for his efforts at seeing that fairness, balance and equity are fostered on his appointments.
“We are aware that the governor wasn’t even consulted before the President’s decision to nominate whoever he has nominated.
“To say the least, we are highly disappointed and call on President Buhari to deservedly reciprocate our gestures in his future appointments,” they said.
