We, the pro-Buhari campaigners from the south-east and south-south, have been receiving missiles from different directions. Some of my readers called to say they were expecting to read my views on the things that have been happening in this country. I have not found a strong voice to defend myself. Now I must say something.
There is nothing special about the first 100 days in the life of a regime that has 1, 096 days. Is it not better to wait until after the next 1, 000 days, that is, just before electioneering for 2019? However, I see no sense in the denial of promises made in the APC campaign documents. Honesty is always the best policy. The Presidency should have admitted that election-winning pledges are different from the reality.
Again, there is no justification for excluding the south-east from the 42 or more appointments announced so far. I believe it was a mistake that now ought to be corrected. But am I worried? Not yet. I stated in this space on April 12: “President Jonathan showered the Igbo with political appointments. The next president should shower Igbo-land with projects instead. The Igbo states got nothing tangible from appointees in the Jonathan regime… The second Niger Bridge has remained on the drawing board. Not even Zik’s mausoleum has been completed. Roads in the south-east remain the worst in the country. No new airport has been built; the Enugu airport was simply upgraded. No government policy has favoured traders most of whom are Ndigbo.” I also criticised the south-east for not having at least one APC senator that would have enabled it to clinch the post of Senate president.
Following the barrage of criticism from my kinsmen that followed, I stated, on April 19, that I was angry but not calling for “Igbo persecution”. The south-east, I assured, would get its due under the Buhari presidency. Later on, I advised the House of Representatives to make one of three APC members from Imo State speaker, so as to balance the federation. For Nigeria was founded on a tripod: east, west and north.
I have not been proved wrong. These are just early days. And, as I stated, I am more interested in projects done in the south-east than in political appointees. The next 1, 000 days will be more crucial than the last 100 days.
–By ANIEBO NWAMU
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