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 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 Odumegu-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 jobs. (sundiata)
