The clearest indicator to the fact that the President Muhammadu Buhari led federal Government is having issues with Ndigbo of the South East geo political zone of the country is captured in the various efforts being made by both the President and his aides to defend his “love” for the race and the region.
During his last media chat the question was thrown to the President on the marginalization of the South East by the federal Government under his watch and here was his answer “They say they are marginalized, but they haven’t said the extent.
If they say they are marginalized, how? Who is the minister of State for Petroleum? Is he not Igbo? Who is the CBN governor? Who is the Minister of Labour? Who is the minister for State Education? I campaigned for election and I won and I work with the constitution” Just to put the records straight, the CBN Governor and Minister of State for Petroleum are correctly Igbos but not from the South East.
And the appointment of all the other Ministers is obligatory because it’s a constitutionally decreed matter that a Minister must come from each state of the federation. Perhaps the most desperate musing ever to establish Buhari’s love for Ndigbo and the South East region is as contained in a fiction story by President Buhari’s Media Adviser, Femi Adesina as told in his latest story titled ‘Evidence abound that Buhari loves Igbos’ as the narration goes “There is a prominent Igbo family in this country, if I mention their names you would know them, they are very prominent in the society.
They told me a story that in the 70s, President Buhari was Minister of Petroleum, the family wanted to join the petroleum industry and then they made a bid. By then, there were not too many Nigerians playing in that industry, and there was a lot of skepticism from those around the then Lt Colonel Buhari, who was Oil Minister.
They all said they don’t believe that the company as represented by that family had the capacity to play in the industry. This family told me that eventually, they got to Lt Colonel Buhari, he listened to them, and asked them; ‘Are you sure you have the capacity to do this?’ And they told him, ‘we can do it’.
Then he removed his military cap, banged it on the table and told them, ‘it is done.’ And he instructed that they give them that opportunity they wanted in the oil industry and today that family is so big and they never forget that the then Colonel Buhari as oil minister gave them the break they needed.
They told me that story about three weeks ago. The next day, when I saw the president, I told him the story. He laughed and then went on to tell me that when people say he is against the Igbos, it baffles him, that really he never knew that family, he just trusted the assurance they gave him that they could play in the oil industry, and today they are very big. He went further to say that even under PTF, so many Nigerians, including Ndigbo, benefitted a lot.
So there is no way you can say the man hates Igbos” end of story. Adesina’s story is akin to a King who is distributing milk to his famished subjects and some families came and he turned them back saying to them I loved your fathers in the past when I was a district head when I looked at merits, now am looking at political reality and remember you and your people gave me just five percentage votes.
The only thing you would get is that assigned to you by the constitution, sorry. At least Buhari is better he would not attempt hiding his feeling and deceive you into a ruse, so the Igbo who have since realized this have moved on looking elsewhere for succour and as children of Israel, they would not go down, not when almighty creator giver of all things is fair and just and rewards accordingly. However, Adesina’s story would be incomplete without incorporating this satire as a chapter for better understanding of the President’s love whether agape or otherwise.
When the All Progressives Congress APC came to power on May 29, 2015, they zoned Secretary to the Government of the Federation to the South East for balancing because the region was conspicuously missing in the emerging power equation in the country but because evidence abounds of the Presidents love for the area, he was unable to find anybody from there within or outside his party he could trust for the exalted position.
Another evidence that abounds of the President’s love for the region as can be attested to, is the very fact that when the nation’s security apparatchik in military and Para military assemble today for crucial decision, nobody from the region will be there-defence, Army, Airforce, Navy, Police, SSS, Civil Defence, Immigration, Customs, Road Safety, President, Vice President, Senate President, Speaker of Federal House, Chief Justice of Nigeria, National Security Adviser, Defence Minister and Interior Minister etc.
This is despite the fact that the political foundation of this country was laid on a tripod of the three major ethnic groups, Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa- Fulani. Today the tripod stands on two and yet people expect the rostrum to be solid and steady. Also to enter this chapter is the evidence that except the constitutionally guaranteed positions of Minister nobody from the loved region has been found worthy to head any agency or parastatal but as loved ones, virtually all of them except those being kept statutorily have been thrown out or waiting to be thrown out and replaced by the other less loved region.
It should also be put on record in this chapter by Adeshina that Finance departments or directorates as the case may be in virtually all federal agencies and parastatals since this regime came to power are from one region of the country because they are the only trustable ones while the people from beloved region are largely put in charge of research and training apparently to be able to relate well with their brother in Science and Technology as Minister.
Very few professional colleagues I know have been to Aso Villa to work and argue the same way on an issue, I was one of Femi Adesina’s huge admirer as a journalist and a columnist. When he writes you would think he is not a Nigerian because of his unbiased arguments on national issues. But eight months in Aso Villa, Femi, has changed and now struggles like his previous colleagues to put beautiful design to a bad fabrics, hard job I know but the impatient public wouldn’t.
I very much share in the views of a Canadian novelist Robertson Davies when he said that “the most original thing a writer can do is write like himself. It is also his most difficult task” Next week baring any significant development in the polity strong enough to change the face of musing, we would look at “What Ndigbo would want from their friend Buhari” God bless Nigeria.
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