• Cabinet reshuffle: Akobundu alleges Tinubu shortchanging South-East
• Says PDP will sweep Abia council poll
The Senator representing Abia Central District under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Austin Akobundu, has chided President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for allegedly excluding the South-East geopolitical zone in his recent cabinet reshuffle.
He said that the President’s actions perpetuate regional disparities in representation.
This is coming after another Abia Senator, Enyinnaya Abaribe, representing Abia South, accused President Tinubu of showing the South-East “renewed shege.”
Abaribe faulted the cabinet reshuffling, which saw the appointment of Bianca Ojukwu as the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.
Tinubu had removed five ministers while appointing seven and reassigning 10 to new portfolios.
The president relieved Uju-Ken Ohanenye, the Minister of Women Affairs, from her duties.
Reacting, Abaribe said relieving a South-East Minister and replacing with another “doesn’t feel like progress.”
Akobundu, in a chat with The Guardian in Abia State, said that in the re-jigged Federal Executive Council (FEC), the South-East zone still has one minister per state as it had before the reshuffle, while some zones were given more than one.
The senator lamented that each South-East state still got one minister as constitutionally stipulated without an additional one tagged regional minister, given that the North-West with seven states and South-West with six states reportedly got additional three ministerial slots, which made them have 10 and nine ministers each respectively.
He also said that the North-East and North-Central zones, which have six states each, got two extra two ministerial slots, making them have eight ministers each, even as the South-South zone that comprises six states was given an additional regional minister.
He said: “The South-East feels shortchanged. When the first set of appointments was made, we clearly observed that the South-East was shortchanged in terms of zonal representation. There were moves in the Senate to draw the attention of the Executive to that injustice. Now that it has happened again, and having studied and analysed the spread, we will continue to raise our consciousness.”
Akobundu, while also reacting to other issues in Abia and his constituency, including the perennial dilapidated state of the Umuahia-Ikot Ekpene federal road that passes through his Ikwuano axis, and the slated November 2, 2024 Abia State council election, expressed concerns on the said road, which he, however, disclosed he had got assurances of the Works Minister that work would soon resume on the 51-kilometre road.
He, however, predicted victory for the PDP in the scheduled council poll despite the party being an opposition in the state, saying: “We are not afraid of the Labour Party (LP)-controlled state government. We will participate in the council election. We have encouraged our candidates to showcase their capabilities, having undergone the necessary processes to ensure their full participation.
