Controversy as Buhari appoints late Okpozo, 1466 others into boards of agencies/parastals

By Obinna Ezugwu

President Muhammadu Buhari Friday, stirred controversy when he named the late Senator Francis Okpozo among 1467 individuals as chairmen and board members of various government agencies and parastatals.

The Delta State born late Okpozo who was named chairman of the Nigerian Press Council, was a former member of the All Progressives Congress’ Board of Trustees. He died on December 26, 2016, while Buhari in a message by his spokesman, Femi Adesina, condoled with his family on December 27, the following day.

The appointment has continued to generate reactions with many wondering how the president could have forgotten about his death despite sending condolence message to his family.

Interestingly, Okpozo is not the only dead man on the list as the late retired Deputy Inspector General of Police, Donald Ugbaja who died months ago was also named as member of Consumer Protection Council whose chairman is Mr  Emeka Nwakpa.

Also appointed however, in what is the President’s largest set of appointments since assuming office is the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo who alongside 208 others will head various boards, as well as 1,258 board members.

A statement from the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation confirming the appointment on Friday read:

“FEDERAL GOVERNMENT APPOINTS GOVERNING BOARDS FOR PARASTATALS AND AGENCIES

The President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency, Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, has approved the constitution of the Governing Boards of Agencies and Parastatals, under some Ministries, as well as the appointment of eminently qualified Nigerians to fill the Board positions, numbering 209 Chairmen and 1258 members.

2. Mr. President considered the approval of the constitution of the Boards as well as the appointments, very necessary, so as to provide a proper Governance and oversight structure for Government Agencies and Parastatals. The constitution of the boards with the appointments is a demonstration of this Government’s efforts aimed at building strong institutions of Governance, and by extension, improving the quality of Policy formulation and supervision.

3. While these appointments represent a substantial number of hitherto pending board appointments, some more appointments are still being processed and will be released in due course.

4. The appointments take immediate effect and Honourable Ministers are advised to inaugurate the boards after letters of appointment have been issued.”

See list below  [embeddoc url=”https://hallmarknews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/attachment.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google”]