The Presidency has issued an apology for errors in the recently released federal appointments list of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The list, which was shared to counter growing accusations of favoritism, revealed the geographic distribution of Tinubu's appointments.
However, it sparked controversy when critics highlighted the omission of some prominent figures, including the President's Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, whose name was conspicuously missing.
Opposition politicians, including Senator Ali Ndume, a lawmaker from Borno South, had previously accused President Tinubu of violating the federal character principle, which mandates the equitable distribution of political offices across the country's diverse regions.
Ndume, speaking in a recent interview with Arise Television, questioned the fairness of the appointments, arguing that they disproportionately favored members of the President's ethnic group.
In defense, the Presidency released a breakdown of the appointments by geopolitical zones, showing that the South West, where Tinubu hails from, received the highest number of appointees, with 29 people filling key positions.
Other regions included the North West with 35 appointments, the South South with 22, the South East with 16, the North Central with 25, and the North East with 24.
Despite these efforts to demonstrate regional representation, critics quickly pointed out that the list was incomplete, particularly due to the omission of Gbajabiamila's name.
This raised further concerns about the regional imbalance in the administration's appointments, with many accusing Tinubu's government of neglecting the South East, which has significantly fewer appointees.
As the list gained traction on social media, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communication, Sunday Dare, took to the platform X (formerly Twitter) to issue an apology.
He acknowledged the errors in the initial release and assured Nigerians that an updated list would be provided soon.
"We have noticed a number of errors in the list of appointments tweeted. We are sorry. We will provide an updated list later. Thank you," Dare said in his statement.
However, he did not provide any explanation for why Gbajabiamila's name was left off the list.
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