Kayode Fayemi,
Minister of Mines and Steel Development, has been accused of executing a
policy designed to marginalize Northerners in the ministry for the sole benefit
of the Southwest geo-political zone.
The accusation was contained in a public petition addressed
to President Muhammad Buhari.
Signed by Joshua Yilnung and Halidu Gimba, the petition
called on the President to stop the minister's undisguised nepotism and
sectionalism in the ministry before they cause greater disharmony.
According to the petitioners, Dr. Fayemi, in concert with
ethnic affiliates in the ministry, is working on a plot to implicate
Directors-General of Northern extraction in the ministry. The aim of the plot, explained the
petitioners, is to create vacancies in their positions to be filled by people
from the southwest, where the minister hails from.
"Indeed Nigerians of other extractions do not find
favor in the Ministry of Mines and Steel other than southwesterners,"
alleged the petition.
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Specifically targeted, the petitioners claimed are four
Directors-General (DGs) of parastatals of the Ministry. These parastatals are
National Metallurgical Development Centre, Jos; National Institute of Mines and
Geo-Science, Jos; National Steel Raw Materials Exploration Agency, Kaduna; and
Solid Minerals Development Fund, Abuja.
The petitioners accused the minister of masterminding the
crises in each of the parastatals in furtherance of his goal of replacing them
with southwesterners. For example,
alleged the petition, the D-G of the
Jos-based National Metallurgical Development Centre has been battling with
crisis at the center. The crisis is alleged to have been instigated by Dr. Fayemi, who was said to have pushed some
staff to write a petition containing 17 workers' union issues against the DG,
who was not even served the petition.
However, only three of the issues were related to the union,
while the others were "frivolous" and were meant to be used by Dr.
Fayemi to remove the DG and replace him with a Yoruba man.
"Facts available to us later revealed that the
petitions and pressure by the union
against the leadership of the DG was an orchestration by the minister
and his cronies. "Notwithstanding the clear resolution of the issues, the
DG, who is long overdue for confirmation, is being held on the line, while the
minister is on a voyage of giving a dog a bad name in order to kill it,"
said the Northerners' petition.
It further alleged that a professor of Yoruba extraction is
being lined up to replace the DG. The said professor, it was equally claimed,
had told staff of the centre that it is the time of the southwest to run the
show in the ministry. The next in line to the DG, said the Northerners, is also a Yoruba man.
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