Specifically, the forum, a Christian political pressure group in the north, also endorsed Plateau State Governor and Chairman, Northern Governors Forum, Simon Lalong, who’s also from the North-Central zone as the next SGF after Boss Mustapha.
The Chairman of the group, Agada Nathaniel, while addressing a press conference in Kaduna on Wednesday, said since the Southwest and the Northeast have been adequately represented, the position of the SGF should be reserved for a Christian from the North-Central state.
This, he said, was for the sake of fairness, equity and justice while adding that the Plateau helmsman, who was the Director-General of the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign organization in the February 25 Presidential election, be given the position of the SGF.
“The implication of the appointment of Rt. Hon. Simon Lalong, as the SGF is that it would create the much-needed political and religious balance in the governance structure in Nigeria,” he said.
Nathaniel, reading from prepared speech titled, ‘Setting An Agenda For Renewed Hope Bureaucracy And The Tinubu Presidency,’ said, “As a body of democrats, we have elected to hold this press conference to set the agenda for the incoming administration and put issues in proper perspective in the quest for transparency, equity, and justice.
“This is on the heels that the Muslim-Muslim composition of the President and Vice President has indeed opened a plethora of agitations for the need to accommodate the Christians in the governance structure of the incoming administration.
“It must be stated that in the executive arm of government, the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation is regarded as the engine room of government, saddled with the responsibility for ensuring the effective coordination and monitoring of the implementation of government policies and programs in the hierarchy of Nigerian government.
“The SGF also serves as a front-line advisory institution of the presidency. Given that the South West and the North East have been adequately represented, it behooves that the North Central region should be given the slot of the SGF in the spirit of equity.
“We wish to use this medium to call on the APC leadership to see this proposition as ideal and necessary, given the peculiarities of time and the need to bring about a sense of inclusiveness in the governance structure in the country.
“The necessity of now requires proactive actions that would give Nigerians the much-desired renewed hope now and in the future. And one such move would be the appointment of a Christian of North Central origin in Rt. Hon. Simon Lalong as the SGF.”
