Rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mike Ozekhome, has said that former President Muhammadu Buhari should be blamed for the perceived preference of his successor, Bola Tinubu, to appoint persons from his ethnic Yoruba language group into key positions of government.
Ozekhome stated this while speaking at a symposium on human rights organised by the International Human Rights Commission (IHRC) held in Abuja on Wednesday, December 11. He said it was not surprising that such a trajectory is being followed by President Tinubu, since it was tolerated by Nigerians when Buhari was at the helm of affairs.
“When I hear today the northerners complain that Tinubu has ‘Yorubanised’ Nigeria, with so many Yorubas in the highest places in Nigeria, it’s true they are making a point. But the question I would ask is, Where were you when Buhari, for eight years, literally ‘northernised’ every position in Nigeria? You were either a northerner or a Muslim.
I cried, I cried, I wrote and wrote. I wrote tons of articles. One of the 50 books which I presented on my 67th birthday was titled: ‘How Buhari Mismanaged Nigeria.’ Some people called it ‘na we we,’ this is our man, and even if he is riding roughshod over all of us, it doesn’t matter.
Hear no evil, see no evil because he is our man. Even if it is not benefitting us, the fact that he is our man is sufficient. Once it is no longer our man, we must also take up arms. No country grows like that.” he said