Ministerial list: South-East leaders’ fault, not Tinubu – Okechukwu

Mr. Osita Okechukwu, an APC chieftain in Enugu State, has exonerated President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of responsibility for the fact that only five members of his cabinet are from the South-East.

Some South-East politicians have accused Tinubu of ignoring their region by not including any ministers from the region on his cabinet.

Of the 48 nominations, the South-East was allocated five, although other regions were granted more.

On the other hand, Mr. Okechukwu, a founding member of APC, joked to journalists in Enugu on Sunday about the alleged disrespect shown to the South East by the current administration: “instead of blaming him, we should rather blame our so-called South East APC leaders.”

“As you are aware, I am not a President Tinubu’s apologist; however, we must be diligent in our analysis by adopting pragmatic analysis,” Okechukwu, Director General of Voice of Nigeria, (VON), remarked.

Instead of advocating for the actual growth of South East interest, our APC leaders were more or less petty in their lobbying technique. One of them was already serving in the Senate, while the other chairs the APC Governors Forum, the largest power bloc in the country.

When he saw them blocking our first eleven, he said, “I was worried, and one of them was ridiculously busy routing for himself as if he were the only qualified person from his State.” When everyone else was bidding for elephants, they were pursuing rats.

Okechukwu reminded journalists that he was the only one who publicly appealed to Tinubu “to support any Igbo in the race,” and that Tinubu’s men responded instantly that the “Kingmaker wants to be King.” Okechukwu was accused of playing blame games to gain favour, as Tinubu is a veteran politician who does not need any lobby strategy to give the South East their due shares.

Is it not because these so-called leaders twisted and dislocated South East APC’s infrastructure from ward level to State level from day one that we had the lowest regional presidential election score?” Okechukwu queried.

When we lost the moral high ground to pursue larger cakes, was it not because they bided petty and obstructed our first eleven?

“The buck needs to stop where it really belongs if there are going to be games of blame.”