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Blasphemy is not only when one talks ill of God or prophets of God. It also involves turning truth upside down, especially when millions of people may be negatively affected. This is what Minister of Works, David Umahi, has done in his recent efforts to canvass support for President Bola Tinubu ahead of the 2027 election. According to Umahi, Tinubu is the Biafra Igbo people have been looking for: “a man who has integrated the entire South-East, given us juicy appointments and very important infrastructure.”
The minister is confident that the worst is over for Nigeria. “The macroeconomy is stable and the President is now taking it down to the microeconomy,” he said, noting that, if Tinubu secures another mandate in 2027, he would address the spate of Nigeria’s insecurity challenges more effectively within the next four years.
Curiously, I have also observed serious attempts on social media by a few Igbo people who appear to have been recruited to sell Tinubu at all costs to the people of the South-East. Some of these emergency analysts tell whoever cares to listen how wonderful a man Tinubu is; how he is turning Nigeria around for the better and how he will make the South-East the Dubai of Nigeria.
The major plank of their argument is that there is need for the South-East to connect with the centre so that Tinubu will do marvelous things for the region. Umahi had earlier stated in Ebonyi, when he visited to inspect some federal road and bridge projects in the state, that, if Igbo people failed to vote for Tinubu in 2027, they risked losing federal projects in the region.
He had enthused, “We shouted marginalization before, but today no ministry is bigger than the Ministry of Works, and it is being headed by an Igbo man. The President has integrated the South-East into the mainstream of Nigerian politics.”
Some other regions or states have made the same argument. Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori; his immediate predecessor, Ifeanyi Okowa; their supporters and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) structure in Delta defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in April 2025 simply to connect with the centre. Akwa Ibom State Governor, Umo Eno, and his acolytes also defected from the PDP to the APC in June 2025 to be able to interpret and flow with the times and not run against the tide.
Practically all the governors who defected to the APC recently wanted a piece of the cake from the centre. So, if all states and regions connect with the centre, what will be the fate of the opposition? Did Tinubu himself not become President from a hitherto opposition party? Who is fooling whom?
It is even awkward to support a bad government simply because one wants to align with the centre. Tinubu said power is not given a la carte. You fight for it, snatch it, grab it and run with it. That was what he did in 2023. He had entered an alliance with former President Muhammadu Buhari prior to the 2015 general election. Then, he was in the opposition. He knew Buhari had a strong support base in the North and could win the 2015 election. He supported the late President with the hope that, after Buhari, it would be his turn. That was why he boldly stated that it was his turn in the run-up to the 2023 presidential primary election of the APC.
In any case, it is truly the turn of the South-East to be at the presidency in this dispensation. The South-West produced the President in the person of Olusegun Obasanjo between 1999 and 2007. The North took over between 2007 and 2010. Their turn was cut short because of the death of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua. Goodluck Jonathan (South-South) took over from Yar’Adua and chickened out in 2015 after he lost to Buhari.
It became the turn of the South again in 2023. The only region that has not produced a President in the South is the South-East. But the South-West took it again. Rather than support the emergence of a South-Easterner for equity and justice, those who have secured “juicy appointments” from Tinubu want all of us to support him so that they will continue to enjoy their juicy appointments. This is hogwash!
The most annoying part of it is using Biafra as bait to woo the South-East. What Umahi does not know is that he has stepped on the graves of those who died while fighting for Biafra. There was a coup in January 1966. Unfortunately, it was tagged an Igbo coup because the leaders were largely Igbo. Also, for some reasons best known to the coup plotters, no Igbo leader was among those killed during the coup.
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In July 1966, there was a counter-coup. Major General Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi, who mobilized loyal soldiers to quell the January coup, was the then Head of State. He was abducted and brutally killed by some soldiers of northern extraction in Ibadan, together with his host and military governor of Western Region, Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi. Their bodies were dumped in a forest near Ibadan. Igbo people never met to endorse what Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu and his fellow coup plotters did. They never collectively sanctioned the killing of some northern and western leaders while some prominent Igbo leaders were not. But, sadly, there was a pogrom against them in the North. They ran for their lives and returned to the East. One thing led to the other and there was declaration of Biafra as an independent country on May 30, 1967, by the late Igbo leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu. This led to the 30-month civil war that consumed over three million lives.
At the end of the war in 1970, the then Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, mouthed the three Rs: Rehabilitation, Reconstruction and Reconciliation. Up until today, these three Rs have been observed in the breach. The cry of marginalization has been very loud in the South-East. When it comes to admission into unity schools, the region is discriminated against. A child from the region will need to score as high as 139 as against two marks from some children in some parts of the North to be able to gain admission.
When it comes to political appointments and job recruitments, it is the same thing. Buhari never bothered about lopsided appointments in favour of his northern region. Tinubu has continued in that direction, Umahi’s juicy appointment claim notwithstanding. There is no strict observance of the Federal Character principle as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution.
Besides, Igbo people are even denied the right to freely participate in their country’s electoral process. In the 2023 general election, some of those currently working for Tinubu warned them not to come out and vote in Lagos. Some of those who defied this warning were brutally attacked. Some lost their lives and property.
This is why there appears to be a resurrection of the agitation for Biafra. Youths who are disillusioned at the trend of events feel scandalized at being second-class citizens in their country. Telling them that Tinubu is the Biafra they have been looking for is the height of insult and hypocrisy. It is provocative.
What has Tinubu even done that we should all clap for him? His admirers say our macroeconomy has improved. The President also gave himself pass marks in a statement to mark the third anniversary of his administration on May 29. He boasted about his achievements, which he listed to include the Nigerian Education Loan Fund disbursements, improvement in power supply, investments in infrastructure and increased foreign reserves.
Granted that public finances are improving, but how has this impacted on the poor masses? Tinubu is constructing Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, but some other existing highways and roads are in a state of total disrepair. A journey of four hours can take 12 hours because of delays caused by bad roads.
The rate of hunger and poverty has worsened. Nigeria’s poverty rate is over 60 per cent. Even with improved public finances, some states cannot pay the minimum wage of N70,000 a month. The cost of a litre of fuel is over N1,300. The price of cooking gas has skyrocketed. The hardship is so excruciating that many Nigerians cannot afford a meal a day anymore. In 2024, about 11 million Nigerian children under five experienced severe child food poverty. Nigeria has one of the highest child and maternal mortality rates in the world.
Many families cannot afford medical bills in private hospitals. Many public hospitals lack basic equipment and personnel, as many health workers migrate abroad for greener pastures.
Despite the frequent collapse of the national grid and the erratic power supply to most parts of the country, Tinubu claimed his administration was confronting the power sector challenges, including strengthening the national grid.
He also claimed that many communities and highways were becoming safer and more economically active. Ironically, the rate of insecurity has worsened in recent times. Mid last month, over 80 children were kidnapped from their schools in Borno and Oyo states. Some of these children were in nursery school, some as young as two years. They are yet to be rescued as of press time. Kwara, Kebbi, Niger, Plateau and Benue states are some of the states that have witnessed increased killings and abductions.
The political class is not bothered because they have enormous resources to tackle any problem. The Presidency reportedly spent approximately N34.39 billion in foreign exchange for foreign travels and related expenses within two years. This is amid the outrageous borrowing this administration is engaged in. As of December 2025, Nigeria’s total public debt stood at N159.28 trillion (about $110.97 billion).
Umahi and Co. cannot be talking about Tinubu being the Biafra Igbo have been searching for when equity, justice, inclusiveness and fairness are strange lexicons in the Nigerian dictionary. Nigeria is seriously drifting. What the country needs now is a competent and accountable government that will galvanise the entire country to achieve genuine peace and unity. Igbo people are not stupid. They know when someone is selling a dummy to them. Any attempt to market Tinubu to them this time is dead on arrival.
