Igbeaku Orji 
Stakeholders across political divides have disagreed over the appointment of members of university councils and other boards from Abia State who are not All Progressives Congress (APC) members.
While some urged President Bola Tinubu to ignore the protest by some aggrieved members of the APC from Abia State against the inclusion of non APC members on the Board of tertiary institutions by the President, others insisted that members should have been considered before outsiders.
President Tinubu had nominated former Military Administrator of Old Imo State, General, Ike Nwachukwu (retd.) as the Pro-Chancellor of University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN); Senator Mao Ohuabunwa, Pro-Chancellor, University of Port Harcourt; and serving Abia State Commissioner for Agriculture, Professor Monica Ironkwe, among others, as members of the newly constituted Boards of tertiary institutions.
But the appointments did not go down well with some APC members who feel entitled to appointments from the President after working for his victory.
The aggrieved APC members under the aegis of Abia APC Stakeholders Forum (AASF) on Monday, staged a protest in Abuja, calling for the withdrawal of the non-APC appointees, which they termed “a typographical error.”
Others, including lawmakers and former council chairmen, dismissed the protest as unnecessary and urged the President to ignore it.
The Immediate past Chairman of Bende Local Government Area, Chief Emmanuel Onwuchekwa, said the appointment could be part of the President’s inclusive agenda which should be applauded.
He said: “I don’t think the protest is necessary. It’s obvious that what Mr President is doing borders on inclusiveness.
“Probably, there are so many people in different quarters and different ways that gave him support outside the party. And now that he wants Igbo to be involved in his administration.
“So, if that will make Abia to fully support the President in 2027, it’s very strategic. By then we will no longer have any excuse not to deliver the state to him.
Also, Pastor Dike Okechukwu, another former Council boss and a member of the Benjamin Okezie Friends Initiative, a major support group of the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu, described the protest as “uncalled for.”
“They can’t be typo errors. Those persons have all distinguished themselves in so many areas. Tinubu is the President of all Nigerians and if he deems any Nigerian fit for any appointment, there is no need for protest.”
He posited that spreading political appointments beyond party affiliations would help to stabilize the polity, adding, “The era of politics is over, we are now in governance.”
While a chieftain of APC and former Commissioner in Abia State Oil Producing Area Development Commission, ASOPADEC, Chief Orji Udeagha, said the President made no mistakes in appointing non-APC members but as a unifier and master strategist, was committed to excellence and capacity.
The former Senator representing Abia Central, Senator Nkechi Nwogu, noted that party loyalists should be rewarded first before outsiders, arguing that “it’s not good for monkey to work and baboon to chop”.
She, however observed that, ” there must have been a lot of other considerations that made the President to appoint them, eventually, they (the non APC members) will see what we saw and stayed with Asiwaju and join us”.
In his response, the former member representing Umunneochi State constituency in the Abia House of Assembly, Hon. Ikedi Ezekwesiri, said though the President has the prerogative of appointing whoever he deemed fit, “the protest makes meaning because you reap from where you sowed”.
