Senator Chris Ngige, a former governor of Anambra State and current Minister of Labour and Employment, is a courageous and outspoken politician who is not afraid to air his views. In this interview with an Awka, Anambra State based radio station, Purity FM, monitored by 365Daily, he speaks on why people from the Southeast have been missing out on appointment as Police Inspector General (IG) and other issues that concern the Igbo.
Excerpts:
On appointment of Service Chiefs
I didn’t say that giving the Southeast the position of Chief of Army is worthless, no. What I said is, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF; Minister of Finance and Economy; Senate President; Minister of Aviation; Minister of Power; we have held these positions before, but what did it yield for us as a people?
So you people (journalists) should not be focused on positions, what you should be concerned about is, what was the outcome? What benefits accrued to our people through those who represented us?
Chief of Defence Staff and Service Chiefs, you people have to be very careful when talking about this issue. Because there’s a way eminent Igbo sons here are talking about the issue, causing our kith and kin across the Niger to be angry.
You people said you were not included in Service Chiefs, shouting that there is no Igbo person appointed to any of the positions. That is not true. The Chief of Defence Staff, Lucky Onyemucheya, what is Onyemucheya? Is it not an Igbo name? Even his other name, Echina, is that not Igbo? Or his surname, Irabor, here we say Ilabor, but then you say he’s not Igbo. This is what leads to trouble. We are trying to bring them closer, so that they can begin to forget about the pogrom brought upon them during the war.
They continue to nurse the feeling that if they didn’t join us in the Biafran war, they would not have lined up their men to be killed. They lost about 1,000 men who were lined up and killed in Asaba. Then today, you come out to say they are not Igbo.
When the pogrom was going on in the North, nobody said they were not Igbo; they suffered casualties at the time. Nzeogwu, is he not Igbo? It is just a matter of dialects. We pronounce Nzeagwu, they call Nzeogwu. You people have to be very careful about what you say because it is the tongue that goads one to trouble. It is an organ that is used to say something good; it is also one that is used to say things that causes war and battle, even between brothers.
We have warned that these our brothers, we need them. The Igbo across the Niger, we need them. The Igbo that live around Port Harcourt, the Ikwerres, they are all Igbo. Obi Wali (late political leader of the Ikwerres) said he’s Igbo. Wonodi said he’s Igbo. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi is an Igbo; he’s an Igbo son.
It is often the case whenever we exchange banters, he would say to me: “Oh, do you think I forgot to include the Southeast in the rail projects of the federal government?” and I would say yes. He would then retort: “How can I forget to include the Southeast as an Igbo person?”
In fact, the master plan of the rail was done before we assumed office, but we have since changed the map and the President approved the new map, which includes the Southeast.
When (former President) Jonathan and his team drew the map, was it not our son that was Secretary to the Government of the Federation? Was it not our daughter that was the Minister in charge of the economy? Was it not our son that was Deputy Senate President?
On Enugu Airport, Stella Oduah and Osita Chidoka
So, that’s the point I am making. Our children, two of them, were Aviation Ministers: Stella Oduah and Osita Chidoka, my son and my younger brother. It is all of them that worked in aviation, but Enugu Airport’s runway was the worst in Africa. That’s what a pilot with Ethiopian Airlines told me when we were landing there one day. He said to me: “This runway is the worst in Africa.”
We then took the battle to the President, in a meeting of the Federal Executive Council, Itold them that this is what a pilot said to me. That my life cannot be continually put at risk, that I am a Minister of the Federal Republic. The other Minister at the time, from Abia, supported me. Our colleague, Hadi Sirika, Minister of Aviation, after the meeting, came to meet me, saying, this position I took in Council, does it mean that he’s the one was attacking? I told him, yes, if there’s an accident at Enugu Airport, it is Igbos that would die, and not your people. That maybe, my brother, sister or in-law might be involved in the accident. He said okay, that’s a valid point and promised to do a memo to the President for special reconstruction of the Enugu Airport. And he did it.
Ten billion naira was subsequently approved for the work. What was expended in reconstructing the Abuja Airport runway was N5 billion, but our own in Enugu is N10 billion because it included a runway, landing light and others like navigational equipment. They are all there now.
What I am explaining is that if you focus on only positions that Igbo occupy, the question would be, what did they use it to attract?
On appointment of Police IG
If you go to the Police today, what we have as Igbos is six Commissioners of Police in the whole of the South east. One of our brothers, Onyemuche Nnamani. The new Commissioner representing the Southeast in the Police Service Commission came to my office, lamenting the sordid situation of things in the PSC as it concerns the South east.
I then went to see the Inspector General of Police and requested to see the list of Officers. He obliged me and what I saw in reality was that the Southeast had six Commissioners of Police only. The South west has over 60, and the North central, over 30 and so on.
Now, the question is, is it not the same Police that an Igbo son held the position of IGP? Why didn’t he put in place a succession plan for his kith and kin? Why?
Or, is it not the same Police that we had my good friend, Ochendo (Simeon) Okeke as Chairman, Police Service Commission? What was the succession plan they put in place there? What happened to those Igbos in the Police that hindered their rise? It is something we have to keep interrogating. Is it when you appoint someone to a position and he or she gets there and begins to look after their own welfare? He or she won’t open his mouth to ask the right questions. What is, therefore, the benefits that such a person is holding that particular office.
So you people should be asking questions, the people you sent to Abuja, what have they been able to do? You keep mouthing marginalisation, marginalisation. You have marginalised yourselves. We have marginalised ourselves yet we turn around and blame President Buhari. Whereas they say promotion of CPs to AIG is by seniority, there’s no Igbo in that seniority line. How come? And I saw this myself. I was privileged to see the staff list. The Igbos on that list are down, down the line. So, out of the over 30 AIGs in the Nigeria Police today, no single Igbo man, but you go and blame Buhari. Was Buhari president at the time? Was he president at the time they ought to have put in place a succession plan for people to come from CPs and promoted to AIG? He’s not the one, your Igbo brothers were there.
Your then president, Ebele Jonathan, ‘this is our own’ was there. So it’s like the fowl exonerating the knife that slaughtered it and turns around to blame the pot for cooking it. Our people who represented us earlier in the cabinet, our people who represented us in the National Assembly, didn’t pay attention.
In the 7th Senate, we fought this injustice. I was a member of the Committee on Police, and we engaged in a battle and got our people promoted at the time.
But now, what they are after is, what will enter individual pockets, how they will go for the next election, how to get back to the House of Representatives or Senate. Or, how he or she will be governor. They don’t pay attention. We had a Deputy Senate President for eight years.
They should stop blaming President Buhari. They should stop. He is not the cause of our predicament. Those who represented us before had the wherewithal to, but they didn’t do anything. We that are there now, whatever infrastructure is being shared, we fight for it.
The Army is not as bad, because the man called Ihejirika (former Chief of Army Staff) had a succession plan. So, there’s no time you promote officers to Major General or Brigadier General that you won’t see Igbo there. So, he’s a true Igbo son who had his eyes on the ground. Our share didn’t get missing there because he put people in line in every course. But when you get to the Police, what I saw there is frightening. But that is a discussion for another day.