President Bola Tinubu, the man who is running an administration that has made discrimination against the Igbo a state policy, is coming home to roost. Having relegated the Igbo to the backwaters in his administration, Tinubu has begun to struggle to make the situation appear different. He probably does not want to go into the next election wearing his hatred for the Igbo like a badge of dishonour.
The President was in Enugu State last week. But he was not on a mission of propitiation. We were told that he was in the state to commission some of the landmark projects of the Governor Peter Mbah administration. That was what it seemed. But the visit, to all intents and purposes, was a political expedition. The President set out to use the occasion as an opportunity to begin to penetrate the South East. But the move will not have much significance if the President decides to ride on the back of a governor elected under the banner of his own political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). Rather, it will have more penetration and reach if the governor of a rival political party such as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is deployed for the assignment. That is how the lot fell on Peter Mbah.
This governor, from what we know and can see, has always minded his business. He hardly interjects on issues that border on national politics. Enugu, the state he presides over, has always remained his focus. In his governance of Enugu State, Mbah is largely recognized as a man of ideas on a mission to succeed. The policy thrust of his administration is quite uncommon. Many believe that he is bringing novelty and life-changing programmes and projects to Enugu State.
So, how did Mbah get coopted into the Tinubu agenda in the South East? Again, many think that Mbah is fit for this purpose because of his near-self-effacing approach to national politics. He is not controversial in any way. He has never been known or seen to intervene or interject radically on any national issue. That is quite unlike some other governors of opposition political parties who, once in a while, comment publicly, most often disapprovingly, on the disruption that is the Bola Tinubu presidency. Mbah does not rock the boat. But he appears to have been politically captured by the Tinubu presidency in its bid to get hold of the South East. That explains the elaborate reception of the President in Enugu. As a matter of fact, an invitation extended to Tinubu by Mbah to come to Enugu, ostensibly, to commission projects, is purely political. That Tinubu accepted to be in Enugu in person was done for the purpose of the political gain that would, probably, accrue from it.
For a man who has been running an administration that is patently discriminatory against the South East, Tinubu needed the Enugu outing to get whitewashed before the people of the zone. Even though Tinubu and Mbah belong to different political parties, the coming election is likely to bring them together. The grand design is for Tinubu to ride on the back of Mbah to score a pass mark not only in Enugu State but perhaps in the entire South East.
As is usually the case, Tinubu received a basket of requests from Enugu and he promised to look into them. But all that was done for purposes of political correctness.
Were it not for the politics embedded in Tinubu’s visit, Mbah, not being an APC governor, could have invited one of his fellow governors from the PDP to commission projects embarked upon by his administration. That is what Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State and Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, among some other PDP governors, have been doing. But Mbah has acted differently. This is hardly surprising. The Enugu State governor has never been known to identify seriously with governors elected on the same political platform like himself. He appears to be single-minded in his pursuit, focusing almost exclusively on matters that have to do with Enugu State.
But governance and politics, especially in the Nigerian setting, are intertwined. No matter how steeped a politician is into governance, he must balance it with politics and politicking in order to stay relevant. Elections are coming and the scheming over who gets what is on. Both Tinubu and Mbah will be seeking re-election in 2027. In this regard, what will be uppermost in their agenda is how to succeed in their ambition. It will therefore not matter if they ride on each other’s back to get to the Promised Land.
So, what possible gain can the Enugu show bestow on Tinubu? The answer to this question is the reason Tinubu came to Enugu to be decorated in Igbo traditional attire with red cap to match. That Enugu appearance was a whitewash. It was packaged to make Tinubu look acceptable in the eyes of the people of the South East.
After alienating the Igbo nation, Tinubu is now trying his hands on a homecoming. But those he is trying to use to penetrate the South East should be bold enough to tell him some inconvenient truths. The President needs to explain to them why he shut the Igbo out of his government. If the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria did not provide that a minister must be appointed from each state of the federation, Tinubu would not have appointed anybody from the South East a minister. His hands were simply tied by the Constitution. Yet, he still had a way around it. He ensured that no Igbo was assigned a ministry of note, except for a certain Dave Umahi whose hatred for his people earned him a place in Tinubu’s government.
As if to mock the Igbo to their face, Tinubu assembled three Igbo beauties and assigned them inconsequential ministerial positions. It was even curious that he reassigned Doris Uzoka-Anite who was making waves in her former ministry and relegated her to a non-substantive position. Beyond these constitutionally guaranteed appointments, Tinubu ensured that no Igbo was considered for any worthy appointment in his government. If the Igbo are not good enough to be made an integral part of the Tinubu administration, nobody should expect them to line up in support of Tinubu during the election. That is simple and straightforward enough.
I am even surprised that Tinubu is looking towards the South East for support in 2027. He should remind himself that he became President in 2023 without their support. So he can as well win again without their votes. Or is he no longer sure of his winning ways? Why really is Tinubu looking eastwards?