Recently the story went viral on social and traditional media alleging that the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Chris Ngige was booed while trying to defend President Muhammadu Buhari’s alleged lopsided appointments at a Town Hall forum organised by the Federal Ministry of Information in Enugu.
Now, who booed Ngige and why – if true? Why not the other ministers at the Forum which included Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, who is from Enugu or Minister for Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed who is the image maker of Buhari’s government? This question underscores the purpose of the sponsored story against the personality of Ngige, a man who has never shied away from the truth and what he believes is right no matter the circumstances.
There is no doubt that among the wailing Igbo political elites today who were majorly responsible for the political and economic woes of the south-east zone in last 16 years, Ngige stands shoulder high above them, with his unprecedented track records in political leadership and vision. Politically, Ngige has always carved a niche for himself and avoided bandwagon syndrome like a plague.
Dissecting Ngige’s foray in Nigerian politics after an outstanding public service career that spanned over a decade, he took off as a foundation member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 1998. Becoming the governor of Anambra State in 2003, Ngige redefined governance and leadership through his verifiable and unparalleled infrastructural development in the state. At the risk of his personal life, he dared and conquered political godfatherism, liberated the state from the stronghold of the notorious political godfathers that held the state down for years. That singular action of Ngige marked the beginning of new, responsible and responsive leadership in the state and the rest of the country.
Defecting from the PDP to co-found the defunct Action Congress (AC) in 2006 alongside the likes of Ahmed Bola Tinubu, AlhajiAtikuAbubakar and others, Ngige never looked back at the PDP led-government throughout its locust years that benefitted majority of the South-east PDP elites at expense of the rest of the Igbos. Within this period, Ngige remained steadfast, focused, patient, and dogged, despite several efforts by these elites and their cohorts to pull him down by all means.
To prove his popularity and acceptance in the South-east, Ngige won Anambra Central zone senatorial election in 2011 on the platform of Action Congress of Nigeria, defeating the candidate of the ruling APGA government in the state, late Prof. Dora Akunyili. His party also won five House of Assembly and one House of Representatives seats in the state to the surprise and disappointment of the PDP and APGA apologists in the zone. While in the Senate, he attracted infrastructural and manpower developments to his state and the zone in general.
Ahead of the 2015 polls, the South-east PDP elites who lacked political sagacity to read the country’s political barometer, and for their own selfish interests deceived the Igbos to put all their eggs in one basket, by voting for President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP, against Muhammed Buhari and the APC.
It was the same Ngige who never hid his unalloyed support for the APC and Buhari that consistently appealed to the Igbos to reconsider their stand and avoid putting all their eggs in one basket, because the odd favoured APC and Buhari. But nobody believed him, instead some sponsored and disgruntled Igbos called him all sort of names.
Again, when these political jobbers and merchants who have continued to parade themselves as Igbo political leaders heard that APC has zoned the Senate President to the South-east ahead of the elections and Ngige was the favourite, they deployed everything at their disposal to ensure that Ngige did not win re-election to the Senate. That was a typical Pull-Him-Down political practice that has held the Igbos down since 1999 till date.
Immediately after the 2015 presidential poll, which was won by Buhari and the APC, it dawned on the Igbos and their merchant PDP leaders that they have misfired politically.
These were the same leaders who have occupied all the positions in the PDP led-government for 16 years, won all the contracts, cornered all the funds meant for the zone without any tangible thing to point at as their achievements for the Igbos. But instead of keeping quiet and re-strategize for a better political alignment with the APC-led government to attract federal presence to the south-east zone, one of the PDP leaders, who is also a ranking senator, now embattled, once boasted that Igbos have no regret voting for Jonathan and the PDP in the 2015 elections, stressing that if the opportunity comes again, Igbos would vote the same way.”
As if that was not enough to show the southeast zone’s belligerence to Buhari’s government from the onset, NnamdiKanu and his sponsors commenced the nefarious activities of the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) in the zone without any caution from the merchant leaders of the zone, all in a bid to distract the Buhari’s government. Not long, IPOB members became allies of the Niger-Delta Avengers members making it obvious that they are working together to bring down Buhari’s government by all means.
Instead of the continued lamentations over alleged lopsided federal appointments by Buhari’s government, the Igbos should ask their leaders who have been appointed and awarded contracts in the last 16 years of the PDP rule to account for their stewardships. This is the time for the Igbos to take stock and hold their merchant leaders responsible, because they have always been the bane of progress in Igbo land. They have neither shown nor provided leadership for the people of the zone. Rather they have continued to exploit the gullibility of an average Igbo person using the Biafra sentiment. That is why the lamentations should be more on the terrible state of basic infrastructures in the zone, than federal appointments, considering that past appointees from the zone have always cornered public funds for their personal use without rendering account.
Has any Igbo man asked who embezzled Enugu-Onitsha road contract fund during Jonathan’s administration? What about Enugu-Port Harcourt road and other federal roads across the south-east zone that have become death traps? They are the same people who are today sponsoring media attacks on the likes of Ngige and Buhari’s government. Their major motive is not about the well-being of the Igbos or development of the zone, but for them to be appointed into government positions to continue with their looting spree. But unfortunately for them, they have met a brick wall in Buhari’s government because of its pragmatic and transparent style of governance that has made easy money difficult to come by.
It is not too late for the Igbos to have a rethink, do away with their merchant leaders who have misled and held them down before now, support their genuine leaders and constructively engage Buhari’s government for the development of the zone. Igbos should not cry more than the bereaved now or throw away the baby and the bath tub again as it is becoming obvious that the Niger-Delta region, whose son was defeated in the last presidential election is already engaging the Buhariadministration for their betterment. Enough of political deceit, self-aggrandisement, political jobbing, greed, vindictiveness and political differences among the Igbos for 2019 is fast approaching. Once beaten, twice shy. A world is enough for the wise.
- Dr. Ezeh, a university don wrote from Ogui, Enugu State.
