Why Igbo won’t protest against Tinubu, by Umahi

By Tom Okpe

The Igbo in the five states in the Southeast have no reason to join protest against the Bola Tinubu administration, Minister of Works, Dave Umahi has said.

Umahi spoke on Sunday in an interactive session with newsmen at his Uburu country home in the Ohaozara local government area of Ebonyi state.

According to the minister, Tinubu has succeeded in resolving the incessant farmers/herders clashes in the Southeast that contributed to insecurity that hitherto affected food production and caused hunger in the land.

He noted that the high cost of living in the country was the cumulative effect of bad administrations of the past but which President Tinubu has started addressing through various policies and programmes.

Umahi said the Tinubu administration has favoured the Southeast zone through appointment of Igbo sons and daughters into key positions, including his own appointment as the first Minister of Works of the Igbo extraction.

According to him, the administration has embarked on many projects in the region, stressing that the zone has no moral justification to join other parts of the country to protest against the President over the hardship in the country.

Umahi, who was the immediate past governor of Ebonyi state, called on the people of the zone not to be lured by any group or region to join protest against the President.

The minister described the recent protest staged by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) against the current hardship in the land as “unhealthy and unreasonable” and urged the people of the country to be patriotic.

He said, “The present hunger that everybody is talking about, didn’t start today. It’s a built up to a number of factors. Before the past administration and present administration, we have been having a build up of insecurity, we had farmers/herders clashes over a number of years at a long period of time.

“At a time, I was the chairman of NEC committee on resolving farmers/herders clashes. So, I went through a number of states especially the Northern States settling the farmers/herders clashes and it yielded a number of fruits.

“That problem dealt a lot of blow to food production. The issue of kidnapping, the issue of insecurity, prevented farmers from going to their farms because here, we are talking about hunger.

“And so, you expect the administration of President Tinubu to fix all those things within nine months, it’s not possible. So, it’s a cumulative effect of the past like I have mentioned. We should be asking ourselves, how do we solve these problems and that’s what the President has started doing. When something has gotten to climax, you don’t expect to dissolve it over night.

“If you check very well especially in South East, you will know that we no longer have incessant farmers/herders clashes. So, why should we join the protest when the President has solved our major problem? The problem now we have in south east is self-inflicted and that is the issue of unknown but known gunmen.

“So, if we are protesting, are we protesting against who? We are protesting against a President that has solved herders/farmers clashes. If you remove the issue of unknown gunmen, South East will be completely safe and farmers can work. So, we can’t go and join anybody to protest”, he said.

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Dr Umahi acknowledged the hunger and hardship in the country, saying however, that it will soon end.

“Yes, there is hunger, there is hardship but the darkest part of the morning is in the dawn. At the time, the morning will break, then, the dark is at its utmost level.

“The truth remains that all over the country, you can see insecurity coming down. So, as insecurity would be coming down, then farmers can go to work. At least we can feed ourselves so that the issue of hunger can go away.

“You have to look at the intension of Mr. President. Is he concerned about all those things? Yes! Success creates another problem but you have to compare to the two. So, there are a number of reforms he introduced that resulted to the few hardship that you are seeing but it’s an attempt to completely solve the hardship.

“So, Nigerians should know the good intension of Mr President. So, South East have no reason to join the protest.”, he said.