April 10, (THEWILL) – Coalition of Christian Minority Groups in Northern Nigeria has written to the wife of the President-elect, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, requesting that she should prevail on her husband to pick James Faleke, as his Chief of Staff.
The coalition urged Tinubu’s wife to help in the selection of James Faleke, who is a Christian, instead of Babatunde Fashola or Femi Gbajabiamila, who are being hinted to be the choice of the wife of the President-elect.
Faleke, who hails from Kogi State, is currently representing Ikeja Federal Constituency in the Federal House of Representatives.
The Coalition, in a letter signed by its Coordinators, Ibrahim Magaji and Istifanus Luka, argued that it would be right for a Christian to be made the Chief of Staff, seeing that the President and his Vice are Muslims, emphasising that the action would indicate inclusiveness while doing otherwise would shut out northern Christian minorities, contrary to the promise she made during the campaigns that if her husband was elected he would run inclusive administration.
The letter reads, “We are representatives of Christian minority groups in Northern Nigeria who aim at pursuing justice and fairness for our members through peaceful means. Permit us therefore to approach you through this medium as we have before us a matter at hand which needs your urgent intervention as the next First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Mother of the Nation.
“Her Excellency will recall that you once had a cause to address Northern minority Christians during the presidential campaigns in Jos, Plateau State and on that occasion, Ma, you dispelled fears about the apprehensions of a Muslim/Muslim ticket and assured us that it will not shortchange ethnic minorities and the Christian north as is being speculated.
“That assurance which you gave us, instantly replaced our fears with the confidence that with you as the closest person to the President-elect, we have no reason to fear marginalisation and we immediately warmed up to you holding on to the promise that you’re a Lady of substance who stands by her words.
“Our dear First Lady-in-waiting, we, however, wish to bring to your attention that lately, there have been some disturbing signals that do not tally with the assurance you gave us. We have it on good authority that the nomination to one of the key offices in the presidency, that is the position of Chief of Staff, would, despite the President-elect and the Vice President-elect being of the same faith, be given to another Muslim.
“Without exaggerating, this has created unrest in our fold and to confirm our fears, media reports have zeroed in on two persons, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila and Minister of Works, Babatunde Fashola, as possible nominees to occupy the strategic position.
“Your Excellency, this is despite your assurance that our President-elect and your husband will accommodate all including ethnic minorities and northern Christians in his administration. The nomination if confirmed will re-engender the feeling of exclusion of certain demographics in the incoming administration and will create further suspicion that there’s a hidden plan to ostracise certain groups from governance as the Chief of Staff position is central to the success of an administration.
“In view of that Ma, you may need to draw the attention of your husband to the implication of what this portends to the unity and cohesion of citizens. Apart from marginalising a section of the country, it will send a wrong signal that hard work and commitment will not be rewarded in the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu led administration. This is because the persons so listed have not done half the work that others have done to ensure the protection of the mandate of the incoming government,” the statement said.
“The Coalition also observed that those aiming to become Chief of staff were nowhere to be found when the integrity of the election that produced Tinubu as the next president of Nigeria was being challenged by some elements within and outside Nigeria.
“Your Excellency Ma, while these people were away lobbying and disturbing the President-elect for their personal interests, people like Hon. James Abiodun Faleke and his supporters were up in arms to counter every move meant to disparage the process and results of the last presidential elections.
“The Hon. Faleke supporters took the matter up by marching to the INEC headquarters, occupied the Unity Fountain in Abuja for days and embarked on a 60-day daily vigil to dislodge the anti democratic elements from achieving their aims of discrediting the elections and to mobilise countdown to the swearing-in!
“The Coalition condemned the media promotion of the said persons sponsoring the media reports to promote other persons apart from those who are ready to give their all to ensure Tinubu succeeds as president are “casting your beloved husband and our revered President-elect in bad light and is a total negation of what you assured us on that faithful day in Jos, when you addressed us in person.
“We believe it is high time to rein in the promoters of this evil narrative so as not to create unrest and disaffection in the polity.
“Our Dear First Lady, this is not the time to keep silent as this particular consideration will have a lot of implication on the perceived fairness of the next administration which even from pre-election, was cast as religiously insensitive.
“We call on you, our incoming First Lady to protect the incoming administration from perceived one-sidedness as Esther did for her people in the Holy Books when she rose and presented to the King the plight of her people! In the same light we say to our dear First Lady-in-Waiting, that who knows whether God has so promoted you for a time like this?
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
