President Muhammadu Buhari says those he appointed into offices in his administration earned them based on merit and not based on ethnic or regional balance.
The president also said he cannot favour those who have spent shorter years in service over those that have stayed longer.
Buhari stated this on Thursday during an interview with Arise TV.
“People who have been there for 18 years or even for 10 years, they trained in Zaria or in Abeokuta, they come through the ranks.
And because they served under all the circumstances, the crises and everything and they gradually rise to that status and you think you just pick somebody just to balance up? These positions have to be earned,” he said.
Recently, President Buhari have been accused of appointing those from the northern part of the country into strategic positions.
Timenews gathered that the recent appointment of the Chief of Army Staff, Yahaya Faruk, however, contradicts the claim by the President.
Yahaya was picked over many of his seniors who have more years in service and are now to be forced into retirement.
