By Ikechukwu Amaechi
In his seminal offering last Sunday titled, “Whose president is Tinubu, anyway?” TheNiche columnist, Dr. Chidi Amuta, concluded in a rather cautionary note: “Tinubu’s current quandary as to his real national constituency may end in greater confusion unless he is ready to rediscover the source of his original sin and redress it. That original sin is that he has failed to rise to the lofty height of the nation. Instead, he has spent two years struggling to reduce a great nation to the limited size of his stature, vision and politics. To discover his mission, Tinubu has to rise to the magnitude of his national canvass.”
*Tinubu
It was a well-intentioned advisory, which, if heeded, will do President Tinubu a world of good and soothe frayed nerves in the country. But knowing him, it is an advisory he will treat with derision.
When the North sneezed recently, complaining of marginalisation, the Tinubu administration caught cold, literally. In a desperate bid to reassure the region, the government partnered with the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation to organise a two-day citizen engagement forum in Kaduna, aimed at repudiating the claim that the region had been sidelined in critical policy decisions and project implementation despite its electoral support in 2023.
In doing that, Tinubu deployed almost his entire cabinet– a representative of Vice President Kashim Shettima; George Akume, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF; Nuhu Ribadu, National Security Adviser; Badaru Abubakar, Minister of Defence; Bello Matawalle, Minister of State for Defence; Mohammed Idris, Minister of Information; Muhammad Bello Goronyo, Minister of State for Works; Yusuf Abdullahi Ata, Minister of State, Housing and Urban Development; Mariya Mahmoud Bunkure, Minister of State, FCT; Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa; Chief of Air Staff, Hassan Abubakar and Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service, Kemi Nandap – to argue the case of his administration.
The reason he did that was not because the North was lying and he wanted to present them with an empirical data to disprove their marginalisation bugaboo but he desperately craves for Northern votes to secure his second term bid.
But the grievances of the North pale into insignificance when juxtaposed with the utter exclusion of the South-East. So, why is Tinubu not explaining to Ndigbo the reason for their exclusion and what he is doing to remedy the unconscionable act as he is doing to Northerners? Could it be that he has concluded he will neither need nor get Igbo votes in 2027 and, therefore, does not need to listen to their marginalisation cries?
To be sure, the level of discrimination against Ndigbo under Tinubu’s watch is ridiculous and bizarre. Starting from the composition of the Federal Executive Council, the South-East has only five ministers out of 52 members, including cabinet-level members. Of the five, only two – Uche Nnaji, Minister of Innovation, Science, and Technology and Dave Umahi, Minister of Works – are substantive. The remaining three – Doris Uzoka-Anite, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha and Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu – are ministers of state. A friend joked recently that it is a fallacy to say South-East has five ministers when in reality they have two and a half.
And he is right. Recall that former Minister of State for Labour and Employment under the Buhari administration, Festus Keyamo, who is now Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, insisted in May 2023 that it was an aberration to appoint a minister of state because the position was an aberration, a constitutional misnomer.
Yet, this is a cabinet where there are 12 ministers of Yoruba extraction holding the most important portfolios. Four of these ministers – Jumoke Oduwole, who replaced Uzoka-Anite as the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment; Adekunle Salako, Minister of State for Environment; Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy; and Wale Edun, Minister of Finance – are from Ogun State, three of them serving in substantive capacity.
This is unprecedented. Until Tinubu happened to Nigeria, it was uncommon to have more than two ministers from one state in the federal cabinet. Had the Constitution not made it mandatory to have at least one minister from each state, it is doubtful if Tinubu would have given the region any slot at all, substantive or not. Not even Buhari with his legendary bigotry descended this low.
But appointments into the federal cabinet is the least of the brazen acts of marginalisation against Ndigbo by the Tinubu administration, which seems to be on a mission to completely obliterate them from national affairs, whether it is in the education sector, intelligence, economy or even social services, so much so that even the crumbs that were grudgingly thrown at them are systematically being taken away.
Take for instance, last week’s sack of the pioneer Director General of the National Council on Climate Change, NCCC, Dr. Nkiruka Madueke, and her replacement with Mrs. Omotenioye Majekodunmi. Dr. Madueke was only appointed in June 2024. No reason was given for her sack, even as Tinubu thanked her for “dedicated service and strong foundation for the Council’s continued growth.”
Last week, Tinubu approved a one-year tenure extension for the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, whose tenure will expire on August 31, 2025. He will now remain in office until August 2026.
Although he claims the tenure extension was to enable Adeniyi complete key initiatives of his administration, many believe the real reason was to ensure that Deputy Comptroller-General, Mrs. B.U. Nwafor, DCG Excise, FTZ and Industrial Incentives, an Igbo, does not succeed him.
Though there are two other Deputy Comptrollers-General – B.M. Jibo, DCG Finance Administration and Technical Service, FATS, and C.K, Niagwan, DCG Tariff and Trade – in the pecking order before Nwafor, the two are expected to retired this year, leaving Nwafor, whose tenure statutorily ends in 2026 as the authentic next in line. With the one-year extension of Adeniyi’s tenure, that dream has been killed with a stroke of Tinubu’s pen.
In April, the administration set up an eight-man Presidential Committee on Population and Housing Census. This is coming almost two decades after the country had its last census in 2006. One would have thought that membership of such a sensitive committee that will pivot on providing Nigeria accurate data for national planning would be inclusive. Not for Tinubu.
Of the eight members, five – Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Olawale Edun; Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue, Zach Adedeji; Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission, Bisoye Coker-Odusote; Principal Private Secretary to the President, Hakeem Muri-Okunola; Senior Special Assistant to the President on Administration (Office of the Chief of Staff), Temilola Adekunle-Johnson – are from the South-West. The remaining three – Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Bagudu (Chairman); NPC Chairman Nasir Kwarra (Secretary) and Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris are Northerners.
In explaining away the regional imbalance, Bagudu said the committee members were appointed “based on their offices’ strategic responsibilities.” How convenient when he knows that it is not by accident that Ndigbo are not on the table. They have been systematically and maliciously excluded from occupying those strategic offices.
In the last two years of the Tinubu presidency, there has been an inexplicable purge of Ndigbo and to a lesser degree people from the South-South from federal parastatals and agencies.
For instance, in May 2024, one of such purges took place at the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, where a tsunami was unleashed at the directorate cadre when 16 directors were sacked including the entire five – Dr. Ozoemena S. Nnaji, Director, Statistics; Chibuike D. Nwaegerue, Director, other Financial Institutions Supervision; Chibuzo A. Efobi, Director, Payments System Management; Paulinus Eze, Director, Security Services and Nkiru Asiegbu, Director, Special Duties – of Igbo extraction, contrary to the dictates of the Federal Character Principle of fairness and equity in the distribution of public posts and socio-economic infrastructure among the various federating units.
Yet, of the 16 new directors hired recently to replace those that were sacked last year, 10 are from South-West, three from the North and three from South-East.
This discrimination is extended to provision of infrastructure. Recently, the FG earmarked N145 billion to fund electricity projects in seven universities. But wait for it, four of the lucky universities are in South-West, with only one in North-East, North-West and South-East respectively.
Those who argue that Tinubu is punishing Ndigbo for not supporting him in 2023 tend to forget that even as a presidential candidate, the man displayed undisguised disdain for Ndigbo. During the 2022 APC primaries, he completely ignored the region in all his political calculations despite the fact that most, if not all the governors – Hope Uzodimma (Imo), Dave Umahi (Ebonyi), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) rooted for him. Other Igbo political leaders like Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, former Enugu State governor, were some of his most zealous vuvuzelas.
Tinubu’s vile disposition to the South-East raises some fundamental questions. Could it be that the president has devised a game plan for winning the 2027 election with votes from only the South-West? Aren’t Ndigbo in the so-called Southern alliance that is being cajoled to line behind him in solidarity? While the president may have something to tell the North, what about the South-East and its longsuffering people? Will their votes count in 2027, that is, if they are even allowed to vote? But Tinubu needs to be reminded that though his ill will towards Ndigbo beggars belief, not even existential threats are enough to deter a determined people.
*Amaechi is the publisher of TheNiche (ikechukwuamaechi@yahoo.com)
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