N8,000 palliative drop of water in ocean- Labour leaders on Tinubu’s plan
The non-inclusion of any person from the South-East part of the country in the Transition Committee of president-elect Ahmed Bola Tinubu is a pointer that the former Lagos State governor might sideline the region in his administration.
This was the view of some persons interviewed by our correspondent in Enugu on Tuesday. According to Felix Okafor, Enugu State coordinator, All Progressives Congress Coalition for National Unity, Tinubu would not toe the line of the present administration because of his antecedents.
According to him, “Tinubu will not handle South East the way President Muhammadu Buhari treated us. As Lagos governor, he had the Igbo in his cabinet. He knows what to do. It is true that Tinubu got only around 4, 000 votes in Enugu, and about 5, 000 in Anambra states, but I believe that Tinubu will correct a lot of things. He is a listening president.”
However, Abuchi Anuenyiagu, a commentator on national issues, said the non-inclusion of the Igbo ‘portends a wrong signal for the people of South East’.
Quoting him, “The Transitional Committee is the body where decisions are made. It is a policy formulating body. They produce a blueprint upon which the chief executive will operate. It is critical, and for him to have excluded South East from the list speaks volumes. He is trying to give them impression that his regime might be worse than the outgoing one.”
Michael Eze, an Abakaliki-based business man, feels Tinubu should not sideline the South-East region because there were many die-hard supporters of APC from the region during the 2023 polls. According to him, “Many voices campaigned for Tinubu. One of them is Engr Arthur Eze. He openly campaigned for Tinubu even against his state man, Mr Peter Obi, of the Labour Party. Gov Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State delivered Ebonyi to Tinubu. Orji Kalu never also hid his loyalty to APC all through the electioneering. Tinubu could curry the favour of South East by the way he treats them.”
Recall that there was never a person of South-East extraction in the Security Council of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
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