The apex Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has taken a critical look at the premeditated decision of President Muhammed Buhari to shut out people of the Southeast from key positions of his administration and appealed to the Igbo nation to remain calm.
Ohanaeze, while reacting to the strident outcries of lopsidedness that attended the president’s appointment so far, the socio-cultural group asked Ndigbo not to feel disappointed but to think home.
President General,Ohanaeze Ndigbo,Chief Enwo Gary Igariwey, spoke at the Ohanaeze National Secretariat in Enugu on Monday during an appraisal meeting on the Igbo nation.
President Buhari in reaction to the huge criticisms that followed such unprecedented concentration of political positions in the North, especially North West and North Central, had said that he was using the appointments to compensate those who had followed him through the years he made futile attempts to the Presidency.
But even at that he overlooked somebody like former Governor of Abia State, Ogbonnaya Onu, who has been with the ANPP that offered Buhari the platform to contest for presidency.
In the appointment of ministers, the president is constitutionally bound to extend to every of th 36 states that make up the Nigerian Federation. So appointing the people of the zone to that positions would not be deemed as a makeup for his blatant disregard” of the people.
“We had a meeting of a select group with Ohanaeze NEC to discuss Igbo day celebration. It will be held on a low key. Branches are free to celebrate as they want. But Ohanaeze national will mark Igbo day on a key.
“It will be a day of retreat,tact and unity. The theme of this year’s celebration is ‘Akonauche na Njiko’ (tact and unity),”Igariwey said.
Speaking specifically about Buhari unabashed cold shoulders to the people of the Southeast, he said , “We ask our people not to be disappointed on the seeming lopsidedness of appointments made so far by the president.
“Our people should remain steadfast, think of home, and galvanise efforts towards the development of Igbo nation because nobody will do it for us. We have helped in building Lagos and Abuja among others. It is time to do the same in our own place.
“We should recreate that zeal and develop our place. This years’ celebration is not a time of festival and masquerades, but a time for rethink.”
The former Secretary General of Ohanaeze,Chief Joe Achuzie, was had more audacious prescription for the people of the zone.
Palpably miffed by the lopsided by the untactful disdain of the people in recent appointments, Achuzie charged Ndigbo to remain strong and form a veritable opposition that will take over power come 2019.
He said, “Having known that the president has distributed key positions to his brothers, what worries me is that ministers have been regarded as mere servants by the president. In other words, if an Igbo is appointed minister,he or she will be a mere servant.
“The question is, are we to take up such positions to go and serve him,to go and make him popular? Without an Igbo man being a minister, I do not think the president will survive. So,Igbo should not take ministerial position.”
