A breakdown of heads of security agencies in Nigeria shows that President Bola Tinubu appointed just one person from Igbo predominated South-East, while North-West, South-West, and North-Central dominate security agencies.

This was contained in a breakdown of the heads of security agencies by their geopolitical region circulated by Sunday Dare, media aide to Mr Tinubu, in a bid to dispel growing concern that Mr Tinubu is favouring his South-West geopolitical in appointments of those heading security agencies in the country.

“Facts do not lie. Below, we see laid bare the facts about the regional outlook of President Tinubu’s appointments within 20 security agencies,” Mr Dare posted on X, sharing a one-page document containing lists of security agencies, names of their heads and their geopolitical regions.

The post added, “The label of him favouring Yorubas in the security setup does not fit. Nigeria, we hail thee!” 

According to the breakdown document, eight persons were appointed to head different security agencies from the North-East geopolitical region, while five were appointed from Mr Tinubu’s South-West.

North-Central got four, North-East got three, and South-South got one like South-East geopolitical zone.

Though Mr Dare’s tweet was intended to portray Mr Tinubu as a non-sectional leader favouring his region, it exposes the gross marginalisation of other geopolitical regions.

In the South-East, clamour for secession has continued to linger, based on the perceived marginalisation of the region in governance in Nigeria.

Nigerians on social media have criticised Mr Tinubu’s government for marginalising both the South-East and the oil-rich South-South geopolitical region producing Nigeria’s wealth.

“Out of 22 appointments, SS and SE got one each, and you have the guts to defend it. You are truly shameless,” said an X user, @improjectP.

Another user, @OfficialEdoOsasB, said, “South-South that feeds the nation one appointment.”