President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been called upon to address the alleged appointments racketeering in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government.

The Middle Belt Youth Association, which made the call at a press conference in Abuja on Friday, also called on the National Assembly to find a solution to the unwholesome act.

The leader of the group, Dr. Michael Ahundu, accused government functionaries with contacts in the Presidential Villa of masterminding the act to satisfy their selfish interests.

The group particularly drew the attention of the authorities to the Ministries of Commerce, Defence and Solid Minerals where competent government functionaries from the North Central geo-political zone of the country were unduly replaced with appointees with questionable appointment letters.

They maintained that such practices must not be condoned since it could affect the ongoing quest by the government to promote diligence, hard work and competence particularly in the revenue generating sectors of the economy.

Ahundu said: “What must not be permitted, however, is for government officials to become architects of deliberate sabotage of government’s efforts. One scenario where this sabotage is glaring is in the hiring of corrupt officials to manage key departments of our national life. 

“To do this, one key temptation policy makers and public officials must resist is to indulge in favouritism fueled by corruption and avarice. 

“We have seen instances of this type of disruption in the system before, where top officials, with an eye for the lucre, have sought to remove departmental hands in their ministries and replace them with pliable tools and people they can easily manipulate for corrupt enrichment. We have had instances of this bad conduct at the Ministries of Commerce, Defence and lately the Solid Minerals. 

“We do not want to indulge in name calling or finger pointing but in the interest of peace and tranquility, we hope captains of ministries where we have noticed this bad conduct will desist promptly and not add to the worries and headaches of the well meaning political leadership of the country, who are tirelessly struggling to still the raging storm in the country and stabilise the current national crisis of acceptance for the administration. 

“There are other reasons why we must condemn this nefarious practice. In many instances, people have merely used their closeness to the Presidential Villa to manipulate aides of the President with whom they share a vision of this dark intention to generate redeployed letters. What is worrisome in some of such instances is that affected officials who are still within their secured contract tenures and without blemish or misconduct are fraudulently removed from their post or position.

“In some situations, such appointment represents a lonesome representation for communities or states that gives them a place in the already skewed national equation of placemats that has been abused and monopolised by members of ethnic majorities of our federation.

“We therefore, call on the President and the National Assembly to keep an eye on this wave of manipulated appointments where hard working and conscientious Nigerians are dubiously removed from office under the guise of political appointments.”