One of the noblest deeds of Bola Tinubu as President till date is returning Bitrus Chinoko to office as the Director General of the Centre for Management Development (CMD), an agency in the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, refusing to succumb to primordial religious bias and virulent ethnic campaign. Chinoko, a minority Christian from Zuru Emirate of Kebbi State was due for a second and final term in April, but didn’t return to office until five months after, due to a sustained campaign of allegedly being anti-Fulani and anti-Muslim, launched by those who wanted his head and position which began during the Buhari era. But uncharacteristically, Buhari would not yield to the pressure from his clan to eject the incumbent, which means the then-president saw value in Chinoko and deemed what he has done so far at the Centre, bigger than his emotional attachment to his Fulani stock.
Aside from confirming his appointment as the substantive DG, Buhari kept faith with Chinoko for four years, between 2020 and 2024, even as those who wanted his scalp remained on rampage. During his eight-year rule, Buhari was regularly lacerated with the blazing rod of race and religion, because his nepotism scale was always ridiculously lopsided. For every Chinoko, there were scores of appointments skewed to favour Fulani Muslim.
One may argue that Buhari spared Chinoko from his traducers playing race and religion cards because CMD isn’t a revenue-spinner and can’t be clocked as a First C.
