-it is the business of the North-West and South-West
August 11, 2024.
A prominent Igbo leader and former President of Aka Ikenga, Chief Goddy Uwazurike, has said the Igbo people are indifferent to the success or failure of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
Chief Uwazurike stated this in an interview with VANGUARD, mentioned that it has become an official policy to marginalise the Igbo people in Nigeria and President Bola Tinubu has followed suit.
When asked about the reason behind the decision of the Ndigbo not participating in the #EndBadGovernance protest, he responded that the Ndigbo are not really part of Tinubu’s Government, and the neglect started from former President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
According to him, “ Well, let me give you a straightforward answer; Ndigbo are not really part of this government, and this neglect started from former President Muhammadu Buhari.
“And I remember saying that it does not matter where we are, but Ndigbo would progress more and more. And that has happened. When Tínubu came, he continued from the nepotism of Buhari.
“For example, in the latest appointments the President just made, seven crucial appointments, not a single person from South South/South East made the list. So Igbo are feeling disenchanted and untouched by this government and as far as they know, whether the government is doing well or not, it is not their business.
“To put it bluntly, it is the business of the North-West and South-West. How many Igbo are in the Federal Executive Council? We have five ministers from the South-East but only one has a real ministry.
“The others are what I call attachments. The same applies to the president’s advisers and so on. So, isolating the Igbo from the government is a state policy. After all, they have a special adviser in charge of disinformation of Ndigbo in this country.
“For what? For who? For a man who will never, never look in the direction of Ndigbo? So, the Igbo have every right to be disenchanted. Nnamdi Kanu is there and we have made requests to release him but the answers have not been positive.
“I was part of a delegation that visited Buhari and the man was shocked at the situation in Ala Igbo. Under Tínubu, the situation has not improved. We have military or police checkpoints every one-quarter of a kilometre from Tuesday to Sunday. However, on Monday, when we have criminal parading everywhere, those security men also withdraw. We have more security agents than criminals but the security men do not do anything, so the Igbo feel abandoned but we shall survive.
“Again, those who argued that participating in the protests would have been an avenue to massacre innocent Igbo youths were right. You see, they tried to rope Peter Obi into what he knows nothing about.
“The leaders of the protests were well-known and were speaking on TV, so they were visible. No Igbo person was among them. Why then accuse Ndigbo? So we knew it was a trap to rope in Peter Obi” He told Vanguard.
He further stated to Vanguard that there was no official meeting as for as he is concern to discuss with the Ndigbo not to partake in the protest.
“Well, I don’t think we ever met anywhere to make that decision. Personally, I was not part of any such meeting. Two things happened. The politics of this country isolated Ndigbo. Two, few people understood the game at hand which is to give Ndigbo a bad name and hang us. Yesterday, the deputy governor of Lagos was on Arise TV.
“They were asking him questions, expecting him to condemn the propagators of Igbo Must Go, but he did not. All he said was that the state government would decide on it. So, in this country, we know we are a people who are always targeted for one thing or the other. The targeting has to stop. And we’ll make sure it stops.
“So looking forward, are there any plans or strategies in place for people to engage in collective action or activism on issues of governance, economy or social justice and if so, what forms might this take?
“Well, the engagement of other people is on, because nobody will be president of Nigeria in a free and fair election unless he’s ready to engage others. Igbo have never cocooned themselves, waiting for the presidency to be given to them, never. I will not do that. There is nobody who is more nationalistic than the Igbo person. It is the Igbo man who goes to the North and the West, settles down, builds and invests.
“In Igbo land, who and who from outside that are investing in Igbo land? Nobody is stopping them. Igbo have no such intentions to stop anybody from investing in Igbo land. Igbo are people who accept others and are only asking for acceptance.
“We’re not asking for favours, we are not asking for handouts. The average Igbo man is a hustler and hardworking. It is not in our culture or blood to be lazy” He mentioned to Vanguard.
