Dr Ezeife accuses Buhari of trying to push Igbos out of Nigeria

Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife has claimed that President Muhammadu Buhari hates Igbos and that he knew about this hatred a long time ago. 

The president has been criticised for many described as lopsided appointment that has largely favoured the north. 

In an interview with Vanguard, the former governor of Anambra revealed what was discussed at the Igbo peace summit in Owerri, Imo state. He said: “We discussed the problem that the South East is facing in today’s Nigeria. The problem of hatred from Mr. President.

“At the beginning, not everybody saw it. I saw it early enough and thinking it was a mistake and not a deliberate action, I started shouting. We have not been taken here, we have not been taken there, you have appointed 10 persons nobody from Southeast; you have appointed 20 people nobody is from Southeast, you have appointed 25, 30, 40 going further we have nobody, no soul from the Southeast. 

“So, I started knowing that it is beyond a mistake. I was thinking it was a mistake and since I believe that the person who is President must have conscience, I was raising his consciousness to the mistake so that he can correct it even the ones I tell you to write, you will find that everything I was saying is true. Instead of being taken seriously for amendment to be made, I was called enemy of the North and enemy of Buhari. So, these days, I am not talking too much again, I am talking about Nigeria. 

“Instead of making the black man to get more respect and dignity, we are generating shame for blacks on earth. We are generating shame for the blacks for whom we are supposed to be improving their respect and dignity.” 

Ezeife noted that the Igbos have a tradition of building anywhere they reside but that President Buhari was trying to push them out of Nigeria. 

He said: “Any group that intelligently looks at its interest in the long term, will find a united Nigeria more attractive than a disintegrated Nigeria. Unfortunately, the people who had disagreed with the restructuring and things that will make Nigeria permanent are the people who will lose most by disintegration.

“If you want Nigeria to be a Super Power and to develop to unmatched greatness, you want every section of Nigeria to make maximum contribution; therefore I end every letter I write to a Nigerian organisation or a Nigerian president with yours for Nigeria as a Super Power. I want Nigeria to be a Super Power; we cannot be super power if components of Nigeria are not making progress. 

“Now we are talking about some group wanting to leave Nigeria, which group, how does Nigeria gain by Southeast of Igbo leaving? Short sighted people may say ‘we will gain the property they are leaving behind.’ How did they manage to have those property they are leaving behind? 

“Look at Abuja, what percentage of the structures, buildings belong to Southeast people? Likewise in Kano, Kaduna, Calabar and Sokoto. 

“Igbo people are not building everywhere for nothing, it is our culture and tradition. There is an Igbo adage which says, “Ebe onye bi ka ona awachi” (where you live, you mend). Essentially, where you live you build, where you live you take care of the interest of that place. 

“So, if you push the Igbo out of Nigeria like Buhari is doing, pushing Ndigbo hard to leave Nigeria and then he turns back to say that the unity of Nigeria is not negotiable, what kind of nonsense is that? You are pushing some parts of Nigeria out of Nigeria and you are turning around to extol the unity of Nigeria.” 

Asked how Buhari was pushing Igbos out of Nigeria, the former governor replied: “All these I have been saying ‘no de make wave in your ears at all? First, he swore the oath to protect and defend the constitution, he is not defending the constitution, he is not offering any job to people from the Southeast. That is called denial, he is corrupting the constitution through the appointments he is making and the best policy Buhari is known for is anti-corruption policy.

“He is corrupting the policy he rolled out in many ways. One of these is unfairness in the distribution of jobs. As I am talking to you now, people sit in national security council of Nigeria, the Igbo are described as one of the third legs of the tripod in Nigeria, not one Igbo is in the national security council. You don’t kill people and expect them to be with you. The Nigerian Army massacred our people in Aba, they also massacred our people who carried the Bible to go and do memorial service in Onitsha area. Fulani herdsmen went and killed our people in Enugu. 

Olisa Metuh was going to court handcuffed when people who have greater charges against them, were swaggering into the court. What are you telling his people? So, please, I am no longer interested in blaming Buhari, all I am interested now is asking Nigerians from all parts of the country to pray for Buhari because he is the President. May God give him the idea to change, may God direct him to the right path of Nigeria’s developmental governance. That is my prayer and I will appeal to everybody to forget criticising Buhari. We have seen that he doesn’t absorb criticism, so why do we keep calling him names if he doesn’t recognise what you are saying.”