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How attempt to “balance” appointments led President Buhari to appointing dead people

The media has been agog with news of how the recent appointments by the Federal Government contain names of dead people. But a look at the timeline of events relating to the appointment shows that the embarrassing error was a result of the Government’s excess care in pleasing everyone.

In a Statement from the Office of the Secretary-General of the Federation released on Friday, the government announced the new appointments consisting of 209 board chairmen and 1,258 board members of Government-owned parastatals; the largest since 2015.

Careful study of the names showed one, then two, then three persons were deceased before the announcement was made. There are presently 6 names identified as deceased.

Mr Francis Okpozo, a Senator of the Second Republic who was appointed as the Chairman of the Nigerian Press Council, has been reported dead since 2016.

The Presidency Spokesman, Femi Adesina was also reported to have sent a condolence message to the family of Okpozo, describing him as a man who saw to the championing of Social Justice in the Niger Delta, during his long history of service to his people.

Another deceased appointee is Donald Ugbaja; appointed member of the Consumer Protection Council (CPC). He was a former Deputy Inspector General of Police, died on last month.

Reverend Christopher Utov, who was appointed a member of the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research, died in March of 2017.

While there has been accusation of incompetence, alleged ghosting of the deceased persons, it is worthy of note that the list of appointees was sent to the President in 2016.

In October 2015, President Buhari had empowered an eight-man committee led by the then SGF, Babachir Lawan, to compile names of prospective appointees into federal government boards, parastatals and agencies.

In September 2016, it was reported that Lawan submitted the compiled list to the President for final verification, but the list was met with rejection as it was gathered that some of the appointees have been chosen without proper verification and the committee was accused of compromising.

By January, Vice-President Yemi Osibanjo replaced Lawan as Chairman of the Committee.

This was after this the allegation of N2.5Billion fraud of the Presidential Initiative on North-East (PINE) was meted on Lawan, which also prompted query from the Senate.

Osinbajo was urged to check the list to ensure the interest of all aggrieved parties is met and no one is being marginalised.

At the National Executive Council Meeting in November, the President promised to announce the appointees soon.

Dead persons Elected

In 2000, citizens of Missouri State in America, elected a dead Mel Carnahan into the Senate 38 days after he was killed.

Carnahan was killed in a plane crash that also claimed the lives of his son and one of his campaign advisers.

He won the elections by (1,075,872) votes, closely beating incumbent John Ashcroft with 1,039,409 votes.

Also in 2016, Oceania City of California voters elected a Gary Ernst into office in November, who had died of diabetic complications in September.

He was re-elected as treasurer, beating Nadine Scott by about six percentage points.

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