SE, SS group warns Buhari against alienation of zones
Buhari
THE South-East South-South Professionals of Nigeria (SESSPN), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) which claimed to be “engaged in promoting good governance and rapid, sustainable and inclusive development” in the two geo-political zones of the country, has expressed concern about allegations that the new All Progressive Congress (APC) Federal Government, may be out to “alienate” the zones from general development in Nigeria.
In a letter addressed to Buhari and signed by its president, Emeka Ugwu-Oju and Secretary, Dagogo Karibi-Whyte, the group, which described the two zones as “major enablers of the Nigerian economy”, highlighted some recent events that fuelled its fears that the areas may indeed be on the road to alienation.
In the letter dated July 29, 2015, the SESSPN drew the attention of President Buhari to some “extant issues” which included the speech of the President during a visit to the United States of America, alleged lopsidedness in key appointments by the Federal Government and the threats against Senator Ike Ekweremadu’s emergence as the Deputy Senate President.
The letter, which was copied to many political leaders of the two zones across political divides, however expressed the readiness of the people of the zones to work with the rest of the country to achieve the change dream that the APC government desires.
Highlighting the causes of the fear of marginalization, the SESSPN referred to:
“(1). A recent remark by Your Excellency whilst being interviewed at the Institute of Peace, Washington DC by Ambassador Johnnie Carson, former US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. Whilst responding to a question regarding the Niger Delta, Your Excellency stated, inter alia; “the states that voted 97 percent for me will be treated differently from those that voted 5 percent for me”. In other words, all Nigerians will not get equal treatment under your administration. Based on the last Presidential election results, the people of the South-East and South-South zones will of course be classified as those that voted 5 percent for you.
“(2). Whilst delivering the keynote address at the Special Dinner organised in Mr. President honour by the US Chamber of Commerce and the Corporate Council on Africa to mark Your Excellency’s state visit to the USA, you singled out a prominent African entrepreneur of South-East South-South extraction for public embarrassment. Your Excellency declared that the gentleman in question was not expected at the Dinner and was probably brought to the dinner by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) while another entrepreneur whom you acknowledged his presence was expected to be in attendance being a relative of one of your key political ally. Unfortunately the in question is the chairman of a major African Banking institution that is also a member of the Corporate Council of Africa, a co-host of the dinner. As a demonstration of patriotism, the gentleman in question was instrumental to the bank being a Gold Category Sponsor of the dinner. Again, Mr. president’s comment on the CBN governor’s purported role in this matter has also exacerbated the strong rumours making the rounds that the CBN governor, being of South-East extraction, is being demonized as a forerunner for his orchestrated forced resignation as a “pay back” for the immediate past CBN Governor’s suspension by the last administration.
“(3). The recent action by your barely two-month old administration pronouncing the dissolution of the governing boards of the Federal Government’s parastatals and agencies singled only one chief executive for outright dismissal and no reason was preferred. This particular chief executive is of South-South extraction. Also, when this dismissed chief executive handed over to an executive director who happens to come from the South-East zone in an acting capacity, the handing over was reversed a few days later following instructions from Abuja in favour of another executive director from the North-East zone.
“(4). The unabated threats to illegally remove Senator Ike Ekweremadu as the elected Deputy Senate President. We believe that Senator Ekweremadu’s colleagues saw an opportunity to have a qualified candidate from the South-East South-South zone elected to the position of DSP in the overriding national interest taking into cognizance the current state of the nation.
“(5). The key appointments so far made by your administration in major national institutions such as the armed forces and other security agencies, for instance, virtually excluded Nigerian nationals of South-East South-South extraction.
“The foregoing action of Mr. President, we are sorry to state, would appear to give the impression they are the latent undercurrent of the policy thrust of the new administration. This ought not to be the direction. We are indeed surprised that the change mantra of Mr. President, which had buoyed the hopes of majority of Nigerians that things would be done differently in the new dispensation, appears already stymied in needless controversy that does not augur well for the future of our democracy. We expect you to heal and unite the nation but your recent actions and speeches seem to be further dividing the nation.
“This is why we appeal to Mr. President to re-examine the issues raised and take steps to redress them to assuage the misgivings already pervading the psyche of the people South-East South-South zones.”
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32 Comments
He will not be there forever.He will one day be referred as ex-president.
That may be so, but have you considered the damage he would have done before that? It would be highly unlikely for south, let alone SS or SE to regain prominence in the nearest future and Buhari’s main mission is to re-position power to the North and he makes no pretense about that.
Buhari is trying very hard in that direction, but he is not God. His antics will fail.
Well said!
I am still laughing ! the reason why am laughing is this clamour for CHANGE. And i feel for our youths who as at 1984 were in their mothers bellies that so shouted for the CHANGE ignorantly; INFACT THEY ARE POLITICAL-SALAMANDER.Then the older Nigerians who experinced the BUHARI military junta; their brains sudenly failed; yet some defect to join this so called CHANGE when they could not win even win primary election in their various wards; while lot more defected for the sake of HIDING UNDER THE SO CALLED CHANGE THAT THEY WILL NOT BE PROBE, And the rest politically blind uncultured Nigerians gave the victory to the RULING PARTY NOW.Therefore,BE PREPARE TO RECEIVE BRIMESTONES ; ITS TOO EARLY TO CRY OUT, TAKE IT IN GOOD FAITH, PLEASE MY FELLOW COMPATRIOTS.
Do you blame the youths for clamoring for change? They have not known good government all their life. PDP had the opportunity to give good government but instead wasted a golden opportunity.The youths wanted something different and they went for it.
You have the right to laugh after all ignorance is bliss. You Know what? Saul was a persecutor of the Christians once but when he became Paul he brought tremendous change to Christianity. This is what the phenomenon called PMB is all about.
The people of the south east and south south need to realistically sit up and plan ahead while still pointing out to the Buhari government it’s loop sided appointments so far made. It should be very clear to any sincere and discerning mind that the attitude of most Nigerian leaders of northern extraction has always been to appropriate the resources from the south east and south south zones with impunity regardless of the feelings of the indigens of the zone and the spoilation of their environment with the might of federal arms. If there is to be any real “CHANGE” , one would see a move to decentralize power and restructure the nation to true fiscal federalism. But no, all the moves are still aimed at squandering the resources and tell the zone to go to bell. Folks plan ahead and train your people to be self sufficient.
How was the resources from the SS and SE used to the benefit of the people from these regions when OBJ and GEJ were in the helms of affairs in the country? The people of the SS and SE should stop the campaign of calumny against other zones in the country and face reality. Even their own son did mot help the region when he was in power
Mr. “Marginalize” if you understand the meaning of decentralizing power and restructuring to true fiscal federalism as meant in my post above, you will then be able to answer your own question regardless of what OBJ and GEJ did with the south east and south south resources.
Deceentralizing power does not translate to good governance. The allocation given to most states in the SS will be able to turn around this region if well spent. Look at the allocation for the month of June 2015 and see what Akwa Ibom got. They were allocated 18 Billion Naira. This is apart from internally generated revenue. Do you require decentralization to spend this money on the people of that state? The problem is not centralization but poor governance.
What does the North contribute to the welfare of this country? What do they bring to the table? They are against any attempt to restructure this country because they like the ‘monkey the work baboon the chop’ nature of the current setup.
With the discovery of shale oil we shall soon know what is brought to the table. Let us tell the truth, the SS and SE only have the Natural resources which is exploited by foreigners and they make a boast of resources. Remove the foreign companies doing business in these regions and the resources are as good as nothing. Before the coming of these foreigner do the SE and SS people know what is called crude oil or petroleum products? We better start looking for alternative source of income and stop this primitive fixation on our natural resources and bringing to the table or else we will be caught in the lurch. Japan, Germany, South Africa, France, and other developed countries have no oil and they are prospering so too we should be ready to prosper without oil
You can advance all kinds of spurious theories to justify your plundering of the resources in the SE and SS. Nobody is buying it. The Saudi’s claim that God gave them Oil to use to spread Islam, in like manner God gave the SE and SS Oil to use to develop their regions and give their people a better live. But those who have no claim to that Oil are the ones subverting God’s will and abandoning their erstwhile trade and getting drunk on Oil. Everyday may be for the thief, but one day will be the owner of the house.
Trust me, Nigeria will cease to exist the day the North discovers a sustainable alternative to Oil in the North. That is how selfish and Machiavellian the North is. We pray that that discovery happens today. Everybody is tired of moving at the speed of the slowest man. Nigeria ranks at the very bottom in most indices of well being in the world (literacy rate, infant mortality rate, polio, diseases, life expectancy, GDP, etc etc.) in the world, no thanks to Northern Nigeria.
Fuzio you know what? Sometimes the monkey don’t even work but the baboon still chop. How? Because the local monkey instead of working is restlessly jumping from one tree to another looking for peanuts while foreign monkeys do the work
What does the SS and SE bring to the table too? It is like a man who built a house close to a farm with fruits but does not know what the fruit is all about. Then one day somebody came to take these fruits to a market unknown to Mr Landlord and returns to pay commission for taking the fruits to the market from the farm. Can the landlord boast of taking these fruits to the market.Can the landlord be the owner of the fruits in the market? Obviously no. You only bring to the table something that is produced from the sweat of your brow. However it is incumbent on the trader to care for the farm if it wants the fruit to continue producing, but the snag is that the tree has a life span
You are shameless and ignorant to ask what the SE and SS bring to the table. 99% or the resources that keep this country alive today come from those two regions. I ask the question again; What does the North contribute to the welfare of this country? If you misunderstood it the first time.
I am not sure we have ever been ‘blessed’ by such a petty person as president! May God help Nigeria!
You used the very correct word! Petty indeed. He does not have a large heart at all.
I am not a poor judge of man. I am therefore not surprised by what Buhari is doing. But he he will soon over-reach himself in his marginalization in ss and se.
Threatening the president of Nigeria is treason. Lock the morons up.
The SE and SS should unite with like minded politicians everywhere to rebuild the PDP and chase these clowns and ethnic supremacists out of Aso Rock, even if it means adopting a Northern presidential candidate in 2019. You can accuse Jonathan of many things but nobody can question his treatment of all the regions of this country in an equal footing whether they voted for him or not. That is how you lead after winning an election. The whole of the Deep South (former confederate states) in the United States voted against Obama. Did Obama turn his back on them? No.
where were you morons when Jonathan was destroying Nigeria with unqualified, stupid idiots? under Jonathan, Edwin Clark, Arubebe, Asari, Deziani etc etc were Masters of Nigeria
One Nigeria rests on equal treatment of all the geopolitical
zones of the country. In the polity there exist inequalities which pre-date the
present administration. Restructuring the nation in line with true federalism is
the answer to avowed marginalization..
It’s interesting to know that our brother’s from the east have been shouting to the present Government don’t marginalize us. But in the last regime, the east grossly marginalized the other parts of the nation especially the west. Look at the list of ministers in the last cabinet, key ministerial portfolios and other appointments – SSG, finance, works, health, labor, COASs, petroleum all from the east but they never cautioned their brother and we in the West we just continued living our lives. Even militants become voices of authority in the last government. Please keep calm until the president unfolds his cabinet then you can judge. Relax brothers, he is the president of all of Nigeria. Even now our brothers from the west are just living their lives.
Thanks for your sensible comment. Some people have short memory. Even former DSS leader is from South. What are they talking about? At the same, what are the laudable achievements they had during President Jonathan administration in SS and SE. Even, what are the various developments those ministers from the South East and South South, who got key positions during President Jonathan, achieved? If we call it the way we see it, hardly you will see any achievements. Wait a minute! I forgot some of them achieved something by personalizing the country treasury and looted treasury in alarming way.
This group is seeking relevance. and they are quite bad at it!!!
Until we as Nigerians stop leaning towards ethnicity as meter for casting votes or assigning governmental positions but rather by merit, Nigeria will never move forward!
No one should play god because of the opportunity to lead. There is no straight line in cosmos hence no condition is permanent. Who knows tomorrow. Bad conditions do not last perpetually. If Buhari does not show equity in his leadership, believe you me history will not be kind to him. Let him remember Pharaoh, Idi Amin, Abacha and Hitler. May God turn his heart to do the right thing.
I am surprised the SS and SE are shouting of marginalization. Did they not say they did not regret voting for GEJ? We must learn to eat the bread we have baked. Must the SS and SE be in government to actualize their dreams? After all 4 years is not for ever. They will be able to think clearly by 2019.
When will this group formed?
We will review and take appropriate action.