In recent time, several Igbo leaders have publicly condemned the agitation and protests for the creation of the Biafra state.

The Pro-Biafra activists and Nnamdi Kanu apologists have showed their hand with the spate of protests in the South East and South South.

The elders of the Ndigbo and some South East stakeholders, have repeatedly insisted that the agitators have misplaced priorities, hence, they’re alone in the campaign for secession.

It then becomes alarming that while protests, like the ‘Million Man March’ still ensues, some Igbo leaders, are crying marginalisation, yet again- this time, on the portfolio-sharing pattern of President Buhari.

Two leaders from Ohanaeze Ndigbo, and Njiko Igbo, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro and Reverend Okechukwu Obioha, respectively, are upset that Igbo sons did not get ‘juicy portfolios’.

Isiguzoro said:

“We are disappointed that somebody of the calibre of Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu was assigned to Science and Technology ministry, even Dr. Chris Ngige should have been appointed as the Health Minister instead of Labour and Productivity.

“Okechukwu Enalama should have been appointed Minister of Finance. Igbo ministers did not get juicy portfolios, except perhaps Ibe Kachikwu and Rotimi Amaechi, who are our brothers from the South-South.”

“We are not happy that we did not get the juicy portfolios, although we are happy that our brothers from the Niger Delta got.”

Echoing Isiguzoro’s sentiments, Reverend Okechukwu Obioha, said:

“They are adding more salt to the injury, we expected that. We can see that we (Igbo) are not wanted in this country. At the moment, the sharing of the national cake is between the North and the South-West.

“What will Ngige be doing as Labour and Productivity minister when the Federal Government is not employing anyone, or creating jobs?

“Even the Foreign Affairs portfolio that was given to an Igboman (Geoffrey Onyeama) is of no consequence because already Buhari has travelled to most of the countries and he will continue to do so.

“He has travelled in six months more than the immediate past president travelled in six years. So the Foreign Affairs minister will just be a rubber stamp.

“Buhari has taken the Ministry of Petroleum Resources for himself, making an Igboman the Minister of State. So, he (Buhari) has virtually given the Igbo nothing. But the problem is this will lead to more agitation for Biafra.”

Although no region deserves to be marginalised, it’s extremely unnecessary and short-sighted to label two important ministries as ‘unimportant’.

It is also reckless to confidently affirm that the national cake is being shared between the North and the South-West without empirical evidence to back such a claim.

Lastly, it is dangerous to make statements like ‘the Igbos are not wanted in this country’, when the polity is already heated-up.

Bottom-line – The truth, although must be said, should be factual and cautious. Another tribal war is the last thing Nigeria needs.

Kolapo Olapoju