Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu |
A business mogul, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, on Saturday
condemned the marginalisation of the South-East geo-political zone by the President
Muhammadu Buhari administration in terms of appointments.
Iwuanyanwu said Buhari got it wrong by treating the region
unfairly because a set of young men were agitating for the creation of the
Biafra nation, and some Igbo leaders are
calling for the restructuring of the country.
The Igbo leader spoke at the first session of the 22nd synod
of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Ibadan Diocese, held in Ibadan.
He lamented that under the Buhari administration, the
South-East was being marginalised despite its contributions to the economic
growth and unity of the nation.
He said, “There is complaint from the South-East that the
region is marginalised in this government. Anybody will agree with me that the
South-East is not getting its fair share in this dispensation.
“The region played a role in the fight for independence, the
growth of Nigeria’s economy and its unity. The Civil War ended not because the
Biafra people were defeated but because the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe intervened.
That is why the Nigerian government used the slogan of no victor, no
vanquished.
“It is not right to deny the South-East people what is due
to them. If anybody is agitating for Biafra Republic now, the Igbo leaders
believe in Nigeria as a nation but they want restructuring. They want Nigeria
to be restructured to what it used to be.
“When Nigeria was amalgamated in 1914 by Lord Lugard, a
federating region had its own culture, system of government and technology. In
Igbo land, we don’t marry many wives or have many children but elsewhere in
Nigeria, some cultures allow their men to marry many wives and have many
children. If it goes on like that, the South-East will be at a disadvantage
because democracy is a matter of number.
“Buhari should go back to the document of the last
constitutional conference where the South-East, South-South and South-West
realised that only restructuring of the nation can guarantee its continuous
nationhood,” he added.
The former presidential aspirant however commended Buhari’s
fight against corruption which according to him, had exposed the wickedness of
the Nigerian political class who enriched themselves with public funds while
the citizens groaned in hunger.
He said, “The anti-corruption war has made awful revelation
about man’s inhumanity to man in our society. How can one person be happy to
collect millions of dollars belonging to poor people and keep it in his house
to be spent with his family when people are dying of hunger? We must
congratulate Buhari for this revelation.
“I want to observe that Nigeria has deteriorated and the
decadence is incredible. Everything around us is corrupt. The institutions and
even the judiciary is corrupt. The president has started the battle but the war
is for all of us to fight.
“Many people have observed that the fight against corruption
is sectional. We cannot blame Buhari for this because there are people around
him who implement this policy.
“They should be held responsible for going after the
opposition alone while keeping their own safe. We must have a new Nigeria where
people will know that corruption is bad. That is the environment where we were
born.
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