Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige has described Buhari as a friend of the Igbo.
Gatekeepers News reports that the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige has described Buhari as a friend of the Igbo, absolving him of any blame in the violence in the Southeast.
Ngige rather blamed the killings and destructions of properties in the zone on Igbo elite whom he accused of using propaganda against the Buhari administration.
He said Buhari has been fair to the Southeast, especially in the areas of appointments and infrastructure.
He added that in the current administration, the Southeast even has more than its due share in the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
Ngige, in a statement through his media office, wondered why the Igbo are complaining of being sidelined in appointive positions when they had previously produced persons that were appointed Chief of Army Staff, Senate Presidents and Inspectors-General of Police.
”There is no maltreatment there (Southeast). We are in FEC, which is composed of a minister per state. But we have one extra ministerial slot. So, the Southeast is effectively represented to ensure justice is done to our people. We are there to talk when there is no justice.
“People can say that we are not honoured with appointments of Inspector-General of Police, Chief of Army Staff and Secretary to the Federal Government (SGF). These are positions we have enjoyed before. We had two Inspectors General of Police – Ogbonnaya Onovo and Mike Okiro. We had an SGF(Secretary to the Government of the Federation)- Senator Pius Anyim.
“We had four Senate Presidents. Twice we produced Deputy Senate President and Deputy Speaker, Ike Ekweremadu and Emeka Ihedioha. They were in charge of federal budgets for eight years from 2007 to 2015. That is the rule in the National Assembly.
“So, if you now talk about appointments, it becomes a matter of perception. I won’t blame them. Perception and reality are in the same line. A lot of them don’t understand how government works. A lot of them don’t understand that I, as a member of FEC, can influence things that will come to my state, my zone or any other area and where we think things should be sited or done in Nigeria. For me, those people perceiving that are ignorant. I don’t want to use the word mischievous.
“But much more important, propaganda against the government by the elite in the Southeast should stop because it is that propaganda that provokes the troubles that we are now noticing. People have been brainwashed and the separatists jumped on that foundation to now shout from the rooftops that we will give you Biafra and when we give you Biafra, all these things will disappear.
“There is no country that does not have its own problems. We have economic problems here and that is why we have unemployment and of course, we have a youth bulge in our population. About 60 per cent of them are youths and a lot of them are unemployed. So, the government is devising ways to tackle that. It is a work in progress.”
He also recalled that the Buhari government had paid off all the gratuity and pensions of all the police pensioners in the Southeast that were neglected since after the war, which no government did before.
He said the government also assisted the 36 governors with bailout funds to pay the shortfall in salaries in their respective states and went further to give them budget support to help them to execute budgetary projects and programmes..
Ngige noted that Southeast governors received the supports even though at the time, the zone was in firm control of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He explained that the current administration has not earned enough revenue owing to crash in the price of oil and production level since it came to power, adding that “we are only getting about 50 percent of what the previous government got in terms of internally generated revenue.”
