How Ndigbo can escape from its self-induced marginalization —Ngige

The Igbo people of South East of Nigeria have been told that it will be for their best interest to vote for President Muhammadu Buhari re-election in 2019 general elections.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, gave this advice to his people at the weekend when he spoke with supporters, arguing that there are clear indications that Buhari is going to win the coming presidential election.

The minister, who accused the Igbo people of suffering from self-inflicted marginalization despite having the opportunity to redeem their predicament, added that the people voting for Buhari in 2019 could guarantee Igbo presidency in 2023.

This he said was especially as Buhari, who is from the North, if voted in for a second term, would relinquish power after four years to allow for somebody from the south to succeed him in 2023.

“Politics is a game of numbers and if you look at the configuration of the electoral strength in Nigeria, you will see that most of the electoral strength is concentrated in the North West that has seven states of Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara and Kaduna and their voting strength, if anything, has increased from what it was in 2015.

“If you remember in 2015 election, Kano alone gave two million votes to Buhari and Katsina gave nearly one million. So, all I’m trying to say is that the configuration of the election patterns in 2015 have not changed in terms of strength.

“In, the South East we are in the neighborhood of about eight to nine million voters. The South West has about 12 to 13 Million and the last time, they delivered 55 percent of their votes to Buhari while Jonathan got about 50 percent or thereabout.

“So, I am saying in effect that you must do political engineering, in the South East and step up to support a Buhari presidency for 2019/2023 and vote for it with all their strengths. By so doing, they will not be left out in the power sharing that will come thereafter. By voting for Buhari, Igbo will get strategic positions in government. They will also even get into the kitchen cabinet of the presidency. There is no government that doesn’t have a kitchen cabinet,” Ngige said.

Speaking further he said, “Number two, it will be easy, for an outgoing president to find joy in doing an equitable nomination of somebody from the South East to say, this person or these persons are fit and proper persons to succeed me and he can even canvass, based on equity to say that the South East is the only zone in Nigeria that has not tasted this presidency and people will listen, both on moral grounds and on the basis of equity.

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“It is obvious that any other northerner elected in 2019 will go for eight years of the presidency and so, 2023 will not be feasible for any other zone. Do not mind what Atiku Abubakar is saying that he will do only one term. It’s not possible. It’s a political talk.”

On Senate President Bukola Saraki’s claim that Bola Tinubu was nursing Presidential ambition in 2023, Ngige said, “As far as I am concerned, Asiwaju has the right to aspire. He is a human being. All of us have our ambitions. He has the right to aspire, after all, he aspired to the post of vice president. “You can’t kill people’s ambitions. We are in politics to serve and if you feel you can serve in a very high office, you should aspire to go there.

“It is left for those who are politicking with you to also square up and do their own spade works if they feel it is their turn. They should do their own spade works so that they will be more acceptable than yourself. So, on moral grounds, on basis of equity, it will be the turn of the South East. South East must step out to say it is our turn with enough punch and convincing reasons.”

In the last election in 2015, the people of South East massively voted against President Buhari and indications show possibility of the people still doing same in 2019. This is especially as they have constantly accused Buhari government of heavily marginalising the region.

 

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