The African Democratic Congress (ADC), has criticised President Bola Tinubu’s latest ambassadorial appointments, describing the list as a settlement list of political ‘I owe You’ (IOUs).
The party took particular exception to the nomination of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the immediate past Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), saying his appointment, coming only two years after supervising the election that brought President Tinubu into office, would lend credence to the widespread allegation that the former INEC chief might not have been a neutral umpire in the 2023 election and could further undermine the credibility of INEC.
In a statement signed by Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, National Publicity Secretary of the ADC, the party said at a time when INEC, was still mired in a major credibility crisis, Yakubu’s nomination for an ambassadorial position sent a dangerous message.
The ADC argued that it was in Professor Yakubu’s best interest to reject what it described as a “brazenly insensitive” nomination and urged the Senate to reject it as a measure of restoring confidence in the nation’s electoral process.
”After waiting for more than two years, and with Nigeria’s diplomacy and global perception in historic tatters, President Bola Tinubu presents an outrageously underwhelming ambassadorial list that appears designed to settle his political IOUs rather than fix Nigeria’s urgent international relations crises.
”At a time that Nigeria needs a disciplined and credible diplomatic corps, capable of rebuilding the nation’s collapsing credibility on the continent and the rest of the world after two years of thoroughly damaging absence, President Tinubu has surpassed himself by presenting a comic cast of political jobbers, corruption suspects, and patronage of wives, children, and relatives of political associates.”
However, ADC said, ”at the heart of this troubling list lies the nomination of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the immediate past Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), who conducted the election that brought Tinubu in as President of Nigeria.”
In a related development, Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA), has described as unfortunate and disgraceful, the list of ambassadorial nominees recently sent to the National Assembly.
The group also dismissed some of the nominees as sycophants and men who were ethically challenged, lacking integrity and selfish.
Reacting to the ambassadorial nomination list, National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, the group said the president spent all of two years and a half into his four year tenure searching for persons to post abroad to represent Nigeria and ended up picking internally displaced politicians, sycophants and persons who were deeply ethically challenged.
The group said it was immoral and despicable that President Tinubu has turned the ambassadorial positions as the jobs for the boys or as compensation for dubious politicians who sabotaged their own political party in the 2023 poll to advance the political interest of the the current president.
The Rights group said the duo of Femi Fani-Kayode and especially Mr. Reno Omokri were particularly compensated for always pouring insults on Peter Obi and for spreading total falsehoods or half truths to attempt to undermine the integrity and credibility of Peter Obi.
HURIWA singled out Mr. Reno Omokri a man who was critical of the then presidential candidate Bola Tunibu whom he called unprintable names but capitulated when it was alleged that he was heavily financially induced become his full time praise-singer and propagandist.
Chuks Okocha
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