igbos
The Ohaneze Youth Council (OYC), on Friday, condemned President Muhammadu Buhari’s latest appointment for the positions of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Chief of Staff to the President and others.
Okechukwu Isiguzoro, the president of the group, said in a statement he jointly signed with the OYC’s spokesperson, Obinna Adibe, said the appointments were “totally unacceptable to Ndigbo”, arguing that they violated the principle of federal character as enshrined in the Nigerian constitution.
President Buhari, on Thursday, approved the appointments of Babachir David Lawal as Secretary to the Government of the Federation; Abba Kyari as Chief of Staff to the President and Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (rtd.) as Comptroller-General Nigerian Customs Service (NCS); Kure Martin Abeshi as Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Immigration Service; Senator Ita Enang as Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate); and Suleiman Kawu as Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (House of Representatives).
Reacting to the fact that all the appointees are from the northern part of the country, the OYC accused the president of pursuing an ethnic agenda.
“We stand to condemn this glaring hatred for Ndigbo by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari,” the group stated. “We recall that apart from several other appointments, Buhari’s government has also appointed Service Chiefs and in a similar manner, he sidelined the South-East zone.
As if that was not enough, the long-awaited position of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation has come at last and this government deemed nobody from the South-East qualified enough to occupy that position, which was earlier zoned to Ndigbo. We are indeed shocked by this turn of events, which are totally at variance with Mr. President’s earlier stand that he was for nobody but that he was for everybody. We are at a loss where this statement fits in, considering all the actions he has taken so far, which are all against the interest of Ndigbo.
Where is the justice? Where is the equity? Where is the ‘One Nigeria’? How long shall Ndigbo be pushed to the walls? The Ohaneze Youth Council is saying it loud and clear that these appointments are unacceptable to us and we urge Mr. President to reverse them, otherwise it would appear that there is a grand-design to annihilate the Igbos out of the political and economic system in this country.”
The group also condemned the recent suspension of construction of the Second Niger Bridge, saying that “all these are pointers to the fact that we are becoming endangered species in Nigeria.”
“The Second Niger Bridge is a project that touches on the economic life of the entire South-East and we find it curious that the federal government is not ready to attach any priority to it,” the group stated. “We use this medium to urge Mr. President to right these wrongs and move the country forward as one. Tribalism has never paid Nigeria and this period will not make any difference.”