Usman Bugaje, an ambassadorial nominee from Katsina State, has rejected President Muhammadu Buhari’s nomination becoming the second person on the 46-person list to publicly reject the appointment.
On Monday, October 24, 2016, Pauline Tallen, a former deputy governor of Plateau state issued a statement rejecting the ambassadorial position.
TheCable reports that Bugaje was influenced by top officials in the Buhari government to not go public on his rejection of the appointment.
According to sources in the presidency, the rejection of the appointments is not going down well with the president.
In reaction to Tallen’s decision, Simon Lalong, the Plateau State governor while speaking to state house correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday, commended Tallen whom he described as “an astute politician”
He continued while speaking on her decision, “Well, it is not only about her husband; I think is the dimension of Plateau politics because I had already made complaints to Mr President that appointments should not be concentrated in one zone.
“And so, all these appointments came again from one zone, in that particular zone. So the complaints that are coming from our state is not about her own personal interest; it is the fact that two ambassadorial appointments are coming from the same zone.
“That is my zone. We had complained that the next appointment should go to the other zone, the central and the northern zone. And so when that appointment came, the kind of uproar that followed also necessitated an intervention.”
He further added: “And I think as a matured politician she stepped down and sacrificed that for the people of Plateau. We are still working on a replacement for that. It is not a big issue but at times a little consultation would have solved that problem because these are issues in the interest of the state.
“You can’t have two appointments, very key appointments at that, coming from a particular zone that is already overloaded with appointments.
“All the federal appointments are from the southern zone, so it would not be fair. That is why we are approaching Mr. President to consider fairness and appoint people from those areas that do not have representation.”
