Tinubu will not treat Igbo badly, Onoh counters Omokri

President-elect, Bola Tinubu’s spokesman in the southeast, Dr. Josef Onoh has once more reassured Ndigbo that the incoming administration of Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu will not discriminate against any section of Nigeria, let alone the important southeast geopolitical zone.

Onoh said that the problem Tinubu had in the southeast was the inefficiency of the cabinet members of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, from the zone, who never sold the legacies of the Buhari government to the people of the southeast.

He said that Tinubu just inherited baggage from the sabotaging cabinet members who intentionally de-marketed the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the southeast, hence when Tinubu emerged as the presidential candidate of the party hurdles were already set for him in the zone.

But Onoh said that despite the challenges, Tinubu will incorporate all segments of the country as an entity government, assuring the people of the zone that they will not be underdogs in the incoming administration.

The spokesman was reacting to an interview where a former presidential aide, Mr. Reno Omokri alleged that Tinubu’s pledge of continuity from Buhari’s government meant that the southeast will remain in marginalization.

Onoh however said it was disappointing that everybody in the southeast has decided to play the ethnicity card and has tried to misconstrue the statement of the president-elect to mean that he will marginalize the southeasterners.

The spokesman said he was tired of repetition and was making that clarification for the last time, after which he will not address the matter again, noting that anybody trying to misconstrue the statement of the president-elect, Tinubu, does so at his or her own peril, but that he will not respond any further on the baseless allegation again after this time.

“One, the statement where Mr. President-elect said he will continue from where President Mohammadu Buhari stopped simply meant that in every developmental stride that the Buhari’s administration embarked on, to Nigeria’s economic growth, infrastructural growth, among others, will continue and be achieved.

“In respect to the southeast, yes, the President-elect will continue from where Buhari stopped, and where Buhari stopped are in the infrastructural projects such as the 10 billion naira reconstruction of the Runway of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu; the 200 billion Naira Second Niger Bridge; reconstruction of Port Harcourt-Maiduguri Rail Line, linking the Southeastern States to a planned new Sea Port in Bonny, and to Northern Nigeria,” Onoh said.

He further enumerated other legacy projects of President Buhari in the southeast to include energizing Education Programme-the 2.8MW Solar Power Plant at Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike Ikwo, Ebonyi State; the completed and launched was the first phase of the Ariaria Market (Aba) IPP, supplying electricity to 4,000 shops in the Market; NSIA Healthcare Investments: Brand new $5.5m Medical Diagnostics Center in Umuahia (completed and operational) and the approval for new Air Force Base (Owerri) and Naval Base (Oguta) in Imo State.

Others include the revitalization of a moribund Fertilizer Blending Plant in Abakaliki, which now supplies NPK Fertilizer to farmers in the State and beyond; the Financial Close on the ANOH gas processing plant, with a processing capacity of 300 million standard cubic feet of gas, and 1,200MW of electricity generation potential, in Imo State; the first phase of the Waltersmith Modular Refinery, with a production capacity of 270 million liters of petrol annually, in Imo State which President Buhari approved the investment of $10 million by the Federal Government into the project, among numerous other projects in the zone.

“These are where the President-elect said he will continue and the projects are not just in the southeast, but in the entire Nigeria. I wish also to make it clear that the southeasterners should stop promoting ethnicity at every opportunity they get and it’s on record that Buhari’s administration benefited the southeasterners and gave juicy ministerial positions to the southeasterners, yet it was Buhari’s ministers in the southeast that sabotaged the Buhari’s achievements in the region as non of the ministers of the southeast ever promoted what he was doing in the region, and neither did they ever try to sensitize their people in the southeast about their ongoing projects,” he pointed out.

Onoh said that it was so sad that it was the Minister for Works, Babatunde Fashola who did the updates, yet other ministers from the region kept mum which has today resulted in a misconstrue of the President-elect’s statement to mean that they are going to subject the Igbo to hardship.

“I respect Reno Omokri and I know certain issues he has adduced his arguments constructively. I see him as one who is well-informed, but he should know that what our President-elect meant was that he will continue the projects from where President Buhari stopped. I can assure you that in these projects, the southeast will not be abandoned.

“In Asiwaju’s administration, the ministers he will appoint should be the ones who should be held responsible if they fail to promote the developmental strides that the Asiwaju’s administration will embark upon in the southeast.

“It is not everything that is said that should be taken out of context. The present problem in the southeast is a guilty conscience, but they know how they all conspired against Asiwaju during the elections and they voted, but despite that, Asiwaju will not isolate the southeast in appointments and in infrastructural developments.

“So, I urge the southeast to calm down and not allow their guilty conscience to drive them to callous, insensitive, and provocative statements,” Onoh said.