Political activist Mahdi Shehu has accused President Bola Tinubu and the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service of promoting nepotism and regional bias in the recently published shortlist for the 2025 Customs Cadet Officers recruitment.
In a post shared on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday, Shehu alleged that the list heavily favours candidates from the southern regions of the country, 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 were from the North. He claimed that about 45 per cent — roughly 803 candidates — were from the South-West alone.
“The most outstanding and visible political blunder of Tinubu is that of open nepotism and foreign loans accumulation,” Shehu wrote. “Bola’s nepotistic inclination and perfection is so glaring and compelling that one could surrender to him the title of ‘Emeritus Professor of Nepotism.’”
The activist went further to accuse the President of favouring his ethnic group in major appointments and capital project allocations.
“It is not enough that he handed over the management of Nigeria’s entire wealth institutions to the South-West,” Shehu said. “He was not satisfied even after allocating over 70 percent of his capital projects to the South-West.”
He alleged that under Tinubu’s leadership, key federal institutions controlled by individuals from the South-West were systematically sidelining Northerners in appointments and promotions.
Shehu argued that the customs recruitment list is evidence of “open bias, partiality, and hate,” suggesting that the Comptroller-General of Customs would not have authorised such an imbalanced list without the President’s approval or knowledge.
He added that Northerners increasingly feel “hated and profiled” under the current administration and claimed many now desire a separate country where they would not be “treated like beggars and animals.”
Concluding his post with a warning, Shehu quoted from the Bible’s Psalm 37:12–13: “The wicked make evil plans against good people… But the Lord laughs at the wicked because he sees that their day is coming.”
“No leader can build a nation with this level of open, deliberate, and well-crafted lopsidedness,” he wrote.
