EXPRESSO_PRESIDENCYWatch》》 By Steve Osuji
- Two ministers to South East, 12 to South West
WE THOUGHT BUHARI HATED IGBO: Ndigbo believed the immediate past president, Muhammadu Buhari hated them. He did. He does. As number one, he showed it; he proved it and he virtually said it with such Freudian slips like, “dot in a circle,” language they understand and “ 97% to 5%.”
Buhari, like the average Fulani, does not hide his feelings. Igbo knew/knows that there’s no love lost between them and Buhari. President Buhari showed Igbo hot pepper over two terms or eight years.
But if Buhari’s was pepper, President Bola Tinubu’s is becoming like ‘pogrom’ in less than two years. But while Buhari was open about it, Tinubu pretends, using decoys and masquerades to annihilate Igbo.
POGROM BY ANOTHER MEANS: The recent cabinet reshuffle by Tinubu has brought the unstated vicious policy to the fore. At inception Tinubu had allotted the five South East States four inconsequential Ministries – Women Affairs, Labour and Productivity, Science and Innovation, Trade and Industry. The only portfolio to Ndigbo that made sense is Works.
But the catch is that, the occupant, Mr Dave Umahi, former Governor of Ebonyi State, must have funnelled a chunk of the State’s fund to the Tinubu campaign to grab such a plum ministerial job. But the bigger catch is that Umahi has the mentality, and indeed, the loyalty of the house negro – like the field negro, Igbo are doomed in his hands. He has shown it over and over again that his people are disposable wipes.
As if that wasn’t enough punishment, Tinubu used the cudgel in the recent cabinet reshuffle. He chucked out two Ministers holding substantive positions – Women Affairs and Trade and Industry. He sacked one of them, the effervescent Mrs Uju Kennedy Ohanenye of Women Affairs and reassigned Doris Uzoka-Anite from Industry Ministry to a redundant, sub-Minister in the Ministry of Finance.
If you thought these portfolios would be filled by Igbo candidates, you don’t understand the Tinubu game. He filled the position with more Yoruba and Hausa-Fulani Ministers. He played the wayo gambit of dredging up Odumegwu-Ojukwu widow, Bianca, degrading her to a junior Minister. (She should have rejected it but there’s ‘hunger’ in the land).
Today, Igbo effectively has only two ministerial appointments out of 48 available. Yoruba has 12 substantive: Petroleum, Justice, Finance, Communication, Power, Interior, Solid Minerals, Education, Health, Maritime Economy, Industry and Youth Development.
And note that these are the plummest jobs in the cabinet.
IT’S A SCORCH EARTH POLICY AGAINST IGBO: Remember that the constitution prescribes that every State in Nigeria must have one substantive Minister. That’s not the case with the South East. They have only two.
If the statutory cabinet appointments are blatantly denied Ndigbo, you can guess what’s happening in numerous other strategic federal job.
For instance, all the crucial economic departments of the sovereign, like the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Central Bank, Customs, Immigration, Ports Authority, name them… Igbo are carefully denied all of them. Buhari did same.
The Presidency administration, the judiciary, the legislature, the military, the police, security agencies… Igbo are intentionally side-lined. All the hundreds of federal agencies of value, Igbo are kept at bay. If this is not a premeditated scorch earth policy on Ndigbo, what is it?
NO MAJOR FEDERAL PROJECT IN IGBOLAND: If you don’t get nary appointments, how could you dream of infrastructure projects. Even in his meanness, Buhari managed to complete the Second Niger Bridge. He also repaired a few roads in the South East but side-tracked the South East in constructing the gas pipeline from the Delta to the Northwest. Yet South East has the most gas deposit. Rail lines were built everywhere, including Niger Republic.
We have Abuja-Kaduna rail and Lago-Ibadan rail already completed. Lagos-Abuja-Kano rail construction has been prioritised; so is Ibadan-Abuja-Kaduna-Kano also being expedited. When you hear about China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), it currently represents the massive rail network on going in parts of Nigeria.
The Eastern Corridor which runs from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri, with spur to Aba and Enugu seems like an afterthought by Buhari. It remains the only rail line under the BRI which is single gauge. Work has been going on at snail pace since its delayed flag off in 2022. Yet the pains of the massive sovereign loans from China will be borne by all the zones. Yet the tangential rail line coming into a highly populated zone like the East is a single gauge while most others are double gauge.
Today, we have Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, Badagry to Sokoto Superhighway , not to mention the Lagos-Algiers Trans-Africa Highway. All these are strategic infrastructure that somehow seems to skirt the East.
ATTRITION AGAINST THE SOUTHEAST IS SELF-ANNIHILATION: Any vital mind is bound to notice this series of infringements, unveiled alienation and the unprovoked shove of Igbo to the margins at every juncture of federal decisions in the APC decade.
It was common knowledge that Buhari fractured the polity, giving fillip to Fulani uprising. One would expect President Tinubu to unite the people and initiate a robust healing process. But no. With the Igbo, he seems to have found joy putting his knee to their neck. Apart from the gruelling inequity in allocation of commonwealth, Igbo psyche is collectively being traumatised by the continued unlawful detention of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. This is particularly hurtful after a Sunday Igboho, detained by Buhari for same offence as Kanu was promptly released by Tinubu upon ascending office.
Some of us also have an idea how the no-good Hope Uzodinma was drafted to depose the people’s choice in Imo, Emeka Ihedioha. We also know whose dark paws is deep inside the Imo soup pot.
The telling irony of the situation is that Igbo is not just an integral part of Nigeria, Igbo has become the heart of Nigeria. An unscripted policy to damage Igbo since the advent of APC continues to manifest like a march to self destruction. Nigeria can only thrive if all the people pull as one under an atmosphere of equity, justice and fair play to all. Besides, it’s a no-brainer that a tripod will never stand on two legs.
But Tinubu doesn’t seem to have such sportsmanlike heart. Indeed, he seems to have found a new sport of kicking Igbo arse. And he does it we relish, we dare say! But on this route, the auguries are dark.
▪︎FEEDBACK:steve_osuji@gmail.com
▪︎Osuji was editor at The Guardian, THISDAY and NewAge. He was also Editorial Board member at The Nation
▪︎OSUJISTEVE/03.11.24