|By Chinwendu Nwani
Political activist Mahdi Shehu has accused President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Comptroller-General of Customs of promoting nepotism and regional bias in the newly released 2025 Customs Cadet Officers shortlist.
In a post shared on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday, Shehu alleged that the recruitment exercise was deliberately skewed in favor of candidates from the South, particularly the South-West, at the expense of the North.
According to him, of the 1,785 shortlisted candidates, 1,244 were from the South, while only 541 hailed from the North. He claimed that about 45 percent of the entire list — roughly 803 candidates — were drawn from the South-West alone.
Shehu described the development as “the most outstanding and visible political blunder of Tinubu,” accusing the President of “open nepotism and foreign loan accumulation,” a pattern he said surpassed that of former President Buhari.
He further alleged that Tinubu had “perfected nepotism to the point of being called an Emeritus Professor of Nepotism.” The activist also accused the President of consistently favoring his kinsmen in appointments and capital projects, asserting that over 70 percent of government projects had been allocated to the South-West.
“He feels no guilt that he decimated the entire economy of the North. He is satisfied that parastatals under the control of South-Westerners are skewing appointments and promotions in their favor,” Shehu wrote.
The activist maintained that the Customs recruitment reflected open bias, partiality, and discrimination, adding that the Comptroller-General would not have made such a move without Tinubu’s approval.
Shehu lamented that Northerners now feel “hated and profiled” under Tinubu’s leadership, saying many in the region are beginning to wish for “a country of their own where they are not treated like beggars and animals.”
He ended his post with a biblical warning from Psalms 37:12–13, writing: “The wicked make evil plans against good people… But the Lord laughs at the wicked because he sees that their day is coming.”
Shehu concluded by urging Northerners to reflect on what he described as a growing deliberate imbalance, warning that “no leader can build a nation with this level of open and well-crafted lopsidedness.”
