Governorship Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the 2015 election in Abia state, Dr. Nyerere Anyim, has urged Ndigbo to be patient with President Muhammadu Buhari, insisting that the bloc would get a fair share in the appointments.
In an interview with Vanguard in Aba, Anyim, urged Ndigbo to support Buhari’s administration, stressing that the President means well for the nation.
He blamed some unnamed Igbo leaders who he said worked against the interest of the zone, and made it impossible for an APC senator to be elected from the area to occupy the senate presidency zoned to Ndigbo. “I want us to be very careful about the appointments made by the
President. I’m an Igbo man from the South East zone. Ordinarily, nobody with sugar in his mouth will vomit it except people that don’t take sugar for health reason. We hoped and aspired to have what you call the juicy appointments, taking cognizance of the fact that Ndigbo have been marginalized in certain political positions in the past, but what did we do as a people to position ourselves to get these coveted offices?
“It is on record that the APC zoned the office of the Senate President to the South East, but did we care to elect any senator on the platform of the APC to occupy the position? Whose fault is it that we failed to get what was zoned to us when we had qualified APC candidates? Quality candidates like Senator Chris Ngige, Osita Izunaso and others ran on the APC ticket and any of them could have made a good senate president, but our people decided to put all our eggs in one basket. This is how the cookie crumbled and we have resorted to sentiments which can’t bestow power on us. Power is never given, but taken. How can we get what is due to us when your brother is at the other end, blackmailing you down?
The other person is at another end making efforts that if it is not him, there will be no other one from the zone?” he said.
Anyim charged Ndigbo to play politics with unity of purpose and always come together to get what is due to them, adding that Buhari as a man of justice, will give the zone a fair share of what is due to it.
Asked whether he is not worried that 90% of the appointments have gone to the North, the governorship candidate insisted that there are still over 300 appointments yet to be made by the President which could be given to other zones.
According to him, “It would have been a different thing if all the appointments have been made, and the scenario is the same as we have now. We are looking at the basic appointments; the kitchen cabinet, the SGF, Chief of Staff and Service Chiefs. When we talk about the appointment of service chiefs, those who go to equity must go with clean hands. In Army, Airforce, Navy and paramilitary like Customs and Immigration, they work on seniority.
Did we have any ranking officer that was supposed to have been appointed and was pushed aside? If you say somebody who has retired from the Army was called back to head the Customs, the President must have a reason for that. Im opposed to what people call Juicy appointments. The issue is how you handle any position.
I believe that whatever position is given to Ndigbo, we have the capacity to excel with it more than those who got the so called so called juicy positions.”
In an interview with Vanguard in Aba, Anyim, urged Ndigbo to support Buhari’s administration, stressing that the President means well for the nation.
He blamed some unnamed Igbo leaders who he said worked against the interest of the zone, and made it impossible for an APC senator to be elected from the area to occupy the senate presidency zoned to Ndigbo. “I want us to be very careful about the appointments made by the
President. I’m an Igbo man from the South East zone. Ordinarily, nobody with sugar in his mouth will vomit it except people that don’t take sugar for health reason. We hoped and aspired to have what you call the juicy appointments, taking cognizance of the fact that Ndigbo have been marginalized in certain political positions in the past, but what did we do as a people to position ourselves to get these coveted offices?
“It is on record that the APC zoned the office of the Senate President to the South East, but did we care to elect any senator on the platform of the APC to occupy the position? Whose fault is it that we failed to get what was zoned to us when we had qualified APC candidates? Quality candidates like Senator Chris Ngige, Osita Izunaso and others ran on the APC ticket and any of them could have made a good senate president, but our people decided to put all our eggs in one basket. This is how the cookie crumbled and we have resorted to sentiments which can’t bestow power on us. Power is never given, but taken. How can we get what is due to us when your brother is at the other end, blackmailing you down?
The other person is at another end making efforts that if it is not him, there will be no other one from the zone?” he said.
Anyim charged Ndigbo to play politics with unity of purpose and always come together to get what is due to them, adding that Buhari as a man of justice, will give the zone a fair share of what is due to it.
Asked whether he is not worried that 90% of the appointments have gone to the North, the governorship candidate insisted that there are still over 300 appointments yet to be made by the President which could be given to other zones.
According to him, “It would have been a different thing if all the appointments have been made, and the scenario is the same as we have now. We are looking at the basic appointments; the kitchen cabinet, the SGF, Chief of Staff and Service Chiefs. When we talk about the appointment of service chiefs, those who go to equity must go with clean hands. In Army, Airforce, Navy and paramilitary like Customs and Immigration, they work on seniority.
Did we have any ranking officer that was supposed to have been appointed and was pushed aside? If you say somebody who has retired from the Army was called back to head the Customs, the President must have a reason for that. Im opposed to what people call Juicy appointments. The issue is how you handle any position.
I believe that whatever position is given to Ndigbo, we have the capacity to excel with it more than those who got the so called so called juicy positions.”
