Tinubu Inauguration: South-East Unsettled Over Exclusion

The composition of the transition committee, led by president-elect Bola Tibubu, has drawn criticism.

Muhammadu Buhari, the current president, received harsh criticism for giving preference to his relatives while making appointments over other regions of the nation, particularly the South-East.

There are no Southeasterners in the top security positions in Buhari’s administration.

Buhari had stated clearly upon taking office that his appointments and the development of his infrastructure will be based on the votes he garnered across the zones.

Allegations of marginalization of the South-East region have haunted his government, feeding the different agitations from the region.

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Tinubu released his transition committee members a few days ago, but not a single individual from the South-East.

The committee, which included members with names like Bayo Onanuga, Abubakar Kyari, Stella Okotete, Makinde Araoye, Betta Edu, Imam Faud, Donald Wokoma, Samira Saddik, Andrew Abuh, Danladi Bako, and Hadiza Kabir, did not include anyone from the South East zone.

There are numerous signs that the zone would lose the race for the leadership of the 10th National Assembly.

The results of the most recent general elections revealed that the Igbo controlled Southeast and that Peter Obi of the Labour Party received a resounding majority of the vote in South-South.

If the transition committee list has anything to do with how people voted during the election, that is still up for debate.

Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) nominee for president, has, nonetheless, criticized the makeup of the list.

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Additionally, President Buhari, who is now leaving office, was frequently charged with marginalization and complete contempt for the Federal Character principle.

The South-East formerly lacked representation on the internal board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its subsidiaries, among other significant appointments made by the President.

Despite the fact that the zone is home to the oil-producing states of Imo and Abia. Enugu and Anambra have now merged.

There are 40 senior management positions in the Corporation, ranging from general manager posts to chief operating officers and managing directors of its companies, and of those, 24 are held by Northerners and 16, by Southerners.

The President also totally left out the South East from his appointments into the key offices in the military and paramilitary security architecture of the country. For instance, the Chief of Defence Staff, Leo Irabor is from South South; Chief of Army Staff, Ibrahim Attahiru (North); Chief of Naval Staff Awwal Zubairu Gambo, (North); Chief of Air Staff, Ishiaka Oladayo Amao, (South West); Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, (North); Director General of DSS, Yusuf Magaji Bichi, (North); Ahmed Rufai Abubakar-NIA, (North); John Mrabure, NCS, (South South); Muhammed Babandede, NIS, North; Hameed Ali, NCS, (North); Ahmed Abubakar Audi NSCDC, (North); Boboye Oyeyemi, FRSC, (North); Liman Alhaji Ibrahim, FFS, (North); Abdulrasheed Bawa, EFCC, (North), Bolaji Owasanoye, ICPC, (South west); Buba Marwa, NDLEA (North).

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And in light of Tinubu’s recent decision to exclude the South-East from his presidential transition team, some people and organizations, including Ohanaeze Ndigbo, are speculating as to whether the incoming administration will continue the alleged neglect of the region by the Buhari administration.

However, Dr. Emeka Nwosu, a political analyst and former special adviser on media and public affairs to ex-Senate President Evan Enwerem, believes it was premature to start making assumptions based on the creation of the transition committee. He made this claim in an interview with Newsmen.

He explained, “It is too early to start to make projections whether he is going to be sectional or non-inclusive going by the composition of the transition council.

“I think it is not enough parameters to start to make any conjecture as to what will definitely happen in the next few months and weeks, so let us be positive because when you talk about transition council, it’s not appointment of people who are going to mount the different sectors of the economy or serve in the government.

“I think it is a technical group of people who are going to engage the outgoing administration to look at their balance sheet. Let us not start on that trajectory (of whether an Igbo man is in the committee or not).

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“Because once you start with that, the question they will now ask you is- ‘did you vote for us?’ I think the most important thing is, let’s even allow the committee to do its work. Don’t forget that this matter [Tinubu’s victory] is still in court.

“No one knows what is going to happen tomorrow. For me, this is not the parameter to judge anything. It is when the government takes off, by their actions, that’s when we’ll now know whether this government will be run according to the constitutional provisions, because section 14 is clear.

“You must not run the government in a way any section of the country will dominate. The last administration did and got away with it because we had a National Assembly that is incompetent and could not question it either because of primordial reasons.

“They are the ones that are supposed to question those things but when you present those things, they throw them away.

“Don’t forget the way the leadership of the National Assembly emerged. People see leadership as a rubber stamp. We expect that the incoming government must have learnt from Buhari’s non-observance of the Constitution.

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“What happened in Buhari’s government has never happened in this country such that a particular religion and a section of the country dominated the entire security architecture and this created a lot of tension in the country.

“I don’t think Tinubu will toe that line because he is a democrat while Buhari was a military man. Going by Tinubu’s record, I don’t think he will allow history to repeat itself.”

Additionally, the transition committee list has continued to be pushed aside by the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide.

The absence of Ndigbo was deemed harmful by Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, the secretary-general of the Igbo organization, in his most recent opinion on the subject.

“We are shocked that among the people enlisted by the President-elect that there was no Igbo person in the transition committee forwarded by Asiwaju.

“This portends danger. We want to believe that those who assisted Asiwaju made a great mistake.

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“For such a mistake to come at this hour, it portends danger to the unity of the country.

“Tinubu must ensure that people from the opposition who were sacrificed, from the South, like Wike, Chimaroke Nnamani, Ikpeazu, Ortom, and Ugwanyi who paid the supreme price by ensuring a smooth transition of power from the North to the South should be integrated into the government of national unity.”

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