IPOB: Ngige swore, says Igbo not marginalised for once in Buhari government

Nigeria’s Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige has berated his kinsmen for saying that Igbo ethnic people and her region have been marginalised, swearing that Igbo speaking people have never been marginalised in President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.

He spoke in reaction to the ongoing insecurity in the South East ocassioned by the secessionist group, the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) which was founded by a U.K based Nnamdi Kanu.

While speaking at an emergency stakeholders meeting of the Association of Eze Ndigbo in the 19 Northern States and Abuja, Dr. Ngige blamed Igbo elite for the propaganda that has led to several attacks on the five states in the region.

Chief Ngige said that if anything, President Buhari had shown friendship to Ndigbo for six years and that the South-East had gotten a fair share of what is due to the zone, especially infrastructure wise.

He emphasised that there is no maltreatment of Igbos in the federal cabinet of President Buhari, saying: “we are in the Federal Executive Council (FEC), which is composed of a minister per state. “But we have one extra ministerial slot. So, the South East is effectively represented to ensure justice is done to our people.

“We are there to talk when there is no justice,” he said. Dr. Ngige berated those criticising President Buhari that his appointments were lopsided, stressing that the people should stop talking about it because they don’t know how government works.

He made it clear that Igbo had enjoyed key positions in the past. “People can say that we are not honoured with appointments of Inspector-General of Police, Chief of Army Staff and Secretary to the Federal Government (SGF). These are positions we have enjoyed before in the Nigerian Federation.

”We had two Inspectors-General of Police (IGPs), Ogbonnaya Onovo and Mike Okiro. We had an SGF, Senator Pius Anyim. We had four Senate Presidents. Twice we produced Deputy Senate President and Deputy Speaker, Ike Ekweremadu and Emeka Ihedioha respectively. “They were in charge of federal budgets for eight years from 2007 to 2015. That is the rule in the National Assembly. “So, if you now talk about appointments, it becomes a matter of perception. I won’t blame them. Perception and reality are in the same line.

“A lot of them don’t understand how government works. A lot of them don’t understand that I, as a member of FEC can influence things that will come to my State, my zone or any other area and where we think things should be sited or done in Nigeria.

”For me, those people perceiving that are ignorant. I don’t want to use the word mischievous. But much more importantly, propaganda against the government by the elite in the South-East should stop because it is that propaganda that provoked troubles that we are now noticing.

”People have been brainwashed and the separatists humped on that foundation to now shout from the rooftops that we will give you Biafra and when we give you Biafra, all these things will disappear. “There is no country that does not have its own problems. We have economic problems here and that is why we have unemployment and of course, we have a youth bulge in our population. “About 60 per cent of them are youths and a lot of them are unemployed. “So, the government is devising ways to tackle that. It is a work in progress.” Dr. Ngige who is former Anambra State governor stressed that the Owerri-Aba and Owerri-Umuahia roads construction are ongoing, just as the international highway from Enugu to Abakiliki to Cameroun where the stretch from Enugu to Abakiliki is completed while the stretch from Abakiliki to Cameroon is ongoing. “Enugu Airport used to be the worst airport in Nigeria.

“We had three Aviation Ministers, Fidelia Njeze, Stella Odua and Osita Chidoka and they did nothing there. Buhari put N10 billion in Enugu Airport. He does not hate Ndigbo.

“Then, the Second Niger Bridge is the biggest of them all. President Buhari took it up from a Private Public Partnership (PPP) Project by which tolls were to be collected.

“By which foreign loan companies’ financiers were relieved of doing what they wanted to do to stay there forever and ever and it is now a legacy project out of the five that is being done in the whole country.”