Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the apex Igbo socio-political organisation has told President Muhammadu Buhari that the people of South East are still marginalised in his government despite his assurance that Nigeria’s unity is not negotiable.
The apex Igbo organisation in a statement yesterday by its President General Chief John Nnia Nwodo, said the president has not demonstrated such in the recent reorganisation in the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
He said he was appalled that nobody from South East was deemed qualified to be among the 55 top management staff recently appointed in the organisation.
According to him, such marginalisation was the reason for agitation by youths from the zone.
“This brazen disregard, marginalization and non compliance with the Federal character provisions in our constitution are the causes of lack of confidence which our youths have in our present governance structure,” he noted.
Nwodo therefore called on President Buhari to revisit the recent reorganisation in the NNPC, and condemned what he described as the consistent and unrepentant disdain for the South East by Buhari administration.
He stated that the people of South East had thought that after Buhari’s declaration recently that Nigeria unity is not negotiable he would take all necessary actions in his governance to achieve it but regretted that the recent NNPC shake up has not shown that the administration is walking its talk.
The Ohanaeze president observed that the appointment of the new managers tilted in favour of the North while the South East was totally ignored, noting that this has always been the case since Buhari administration came to office.
This, he added, would not achieve the desired cohesion in an already fragmented nation.
“As long as President Buhari continues to live out his speech abroad that his government will favour those who voted 97 per cent for him against those who voted five per cent for him so long will the dissatisfaction and unrest in our polity subsist.
“There is no oil well anywhere in Northern Nigeria. Four of the five states in the South East have proven oil resources some of which provide our nation’s revenue yet our people are not found fit to be adequately represented in a key corporate institution like the NNPC,” he regretted.
