During the presidential media chat on Wednesday 30th December 2015, President Muhammed Buhari when asked about the outcries of maltreatment and marginalization by some gullible Igbos and the continue protests and struggle for the realization of a sovereign Biafran State, the president responded by saying:
“They said they are being marginalized but they haven’t defined the extent of their marginalization. Who marginalized them? How? Where? Do you know?,” he queried.”Who is the minister of state for petroleum, is he not Igbo? Who is the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria? Is he not Igbo? Who is minister of labour, science and technology? What do the Igbos want?”
And here I come, asking the same question with that of Mr. President; “What do the Igbos want?”
I have seen and read several fictive ejaculations and verbal masturbation from some lousy, frustrated, hypocritical and angry wailers against the government of President Muhammadu Buhari. They concocted all manner of hogwash to prove that Buhari “hates the Igbos” and that’s why he does not consider them for lucrative appointments in his government.
Amazingly, these hate mongers making noise about juicy appointments are the same people who massively and resoundingly rejected Buhari not once not twice, on four occasions when he contested the presidency in 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015. And at same time while making these hypocritical noises about appointments, they keep saying that they are proud of the way they rejected him (Buhari), and that if given the chance they will reject him over and over again for an absolutely corruption tainted regime, a regime unanimously rejected by Nigerians and the global communities, and yet they wants juicy appointments in a government they are proud of rejecting. Isn’t it an outright hypocrisy and callousness to expect lucrative appointments in the government of a man you have proudly rejected and insulted with all sorts of derogatory words? I wonder how you will be part of a CHANGE GOVERNMENT after ganging up against the CHANGE MOVEMENT right from inception. What a hypocrisy!
The jobless dedicated bunch of unfocused and brainwashed Igbo self acclaimed social media journalists occupied our blogsphere with various fabrications to lure Igbos away from supporting Buhari; they dusted 50 years-old photos of the civil war and those of executed drug dealers during Buhari’s military leadership days, and attributed him to their concocted fictive quotes of islamization just to deceive young Igbo and stop them from voting Buhari. And while other tribes were busy working out alliance to get Nigeria out of the state of comatose in which we found ourselves into as a result of PDP’s sixteen years of rascalities and mismanagement, the Igbos were busy living in their fictive elucidation and working to shutdown the doors of success for Buhari and the APC, and inciting some gullible Igbos and Niger Deltans against other regions with cheap blackmails and photographs of Buhari’s military administration, while branding any Igbo who dare identify with not only Buhari but the APC in general a traitor and not of Igbo origin.
But today after they failed in all their plans to humiliate and shame Buhari, the same self acclaimed enemies of change are now demanding for more juicy appointments in their enemy’s government ahead of other tribes who tirelessly sacrificed their all to make sure the change train safely crossed over the bridge of Igbo conspiracy. In all sense of fairness, President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressive Congress (APC) have tremendously identified with Ndigbo despite their open hatred against the former and the latter.
The first step to identify with Ndigbo at the onset of this administration was ballooned into the air by nobody rather the Igbos themselves, the position of the Speaker of the House of Representatives or the Senate President was initially zoned to the Southeast but due to their outright hatred and growing insularity, the Igbos sentimentally sold out all the legislative seats in their entire federal constituencies to the PDP for a cheap price, leaving behind no single legislator in the APC hierarchy to occupy the seat of the Speaker nor the Senate President. Indeed, the Igbos in their selfish quest to ensure the defeat and humiliation of the people’s general and the APC, they pitifully shot themselves in the head. Upon all the hatred, the APC legislators went out of its modus operandi to make an Igbo man from a different minority party the Deputy Senate President but yet, my Igbo brothers are still shouting marginalization. Who is marginalizing who?
Despite this, the present day regime of President Mohammadu Buhari tried all its possible best to appease the Igbos but yet, they aren’t contend with all they got. Apart from the fact that all the five states in the Southeast has one minister each, Buhari also ensured that an Igbo man represented Delta and Rivers State in his cabinet. Who is marginalizing who? Do you know that almost all the sensitive positions in Buhari’s cabinet are headed by Igbos?
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyema is an Igbo man. Ibe Kachikwu, the Minister of State, Petroleum is an Igbo.
Ogbonaya Onu, the Minister of Science and Technology is also an Igbo. Okechukwu Enelamah, the Minister of Trade, Investment is an Igbo. Professor Anthony Onwuka, the Minister of State, Education is an Igbo. Rotimi Amaechi, the Minister of Transportation is also an Igbo. What about Godwin Emefiele, the Central Bank Governor, is he not an Igbo?
But yet, we keep hearing outcries of marginalization from some hypocritical sectionists. What lucrative appointments do Ndigbo want in a government they joyfully and overwhelmingly rejected more than what they’ve got? What do the Igbos want?
I often say it that Igbos are the architectures of their own problems, they kept deceiving themselves by pointing fingers and blaming others for their own misfortunes. Pitifully, their monetary marriage with the most corrupt regime in the history of man and their fictive masturbations against other tribes and regions have just handed them a monumental irrelevance in the political makeup of our democracy. When MKO Abiola boasted to Arthur Nzeribe that he can win the presidency without Igbo votes, many argued thought it could never be possible but Abiola went on to do what almost seemed impossible to many and won the presidentials without Igbo votes and today, Buhari and APC have achieved the same feat.
This doesn’t augur well for my Igbo brothers, they’ve proven to the world that they have no much relevance in our democracy today as one or two regions could form enough coalition to produce the presidency with or without Igbo votes; thus relegating the Igbos to a mere minority and immaterial clan in deciding who emerges as Nigeria’s president.
This development isn’t only worrisome but horrific, and doesn’t betoken well for Igbo relevance in our political futurity, unless something urgent is done. Ndigbo must accept the reality and hold Nigeria at heart before any tribal or religious sentiment, and learn to distinguish between personal and communal liability. The time to start a rethink is now.
This mail is officially sent by Usama Dandare.
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@osadaby
This is a pretty ignorant article and written by someone who writes a question but could not understand the response even if someone took the time to explain it to him.
The fear other tribes have of Igbo unity & separation is a valid one because there is great power in that. Trying to cut the head off the Biafran ‘insurgency’ through abuse, intimidation or violence will not work. As this is an idealogical construct that cannot be destroyed like that. Poor articles like this one serve as PR for the cause and galvanise those who look at Nigeria as a failed state.
If Nigeria was working and looked like it could work – Biafra would be forgotten. The writer of this article Usama Dandare and the platform given to him by The Herald have instigated more questions beyond what has been written here.