Adams Oshiomhole, governor of Edo state, says that the Igbo ethnic group was grossly marginalized by President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party.

In an interview with Vanguard, Oshiomhole addressed the issue of marginalization of the Ndigbo people.

The governor also harped on the last general election, stressing that President Buhari and the All Progressives Congress, got a reasonable number of votes from the South East.

Oshiomhole also added that it was too early to say President Buhari has not favoured the Igbos in his political appointments, owing to the fact that there’s still a lot of appointments to go round.

The governor said if anyone was to blame for under-developing the South East region and disenfranchising the Igbos, it should be Goodluck Jonathan and his party, PDP.

Below is an excerpt from the interview;

“Let me tell you, it is even wrong for anybody to feel that the Igbos did not support APC, they did and I am surprised they have not noticed. If you look at the votes Jonathan got in the East in 2011 and compare to what they delivered in 2015, it is clear that Ndigbo gave Jonathan less support in 2015 than they did in 2011.

Where you got 2milion miracle votes before, this time you got 1million in 2015, so there was something positive in favour of Buhari on that. Even though overall you lost but in a sense the level of turn out and the number thrown up were not attractive as the PDP had expected. I think the President has told everybody that he is President of Nigeria, not President of those who voted for him and so far I have not seen evidence of tribalism.

I think it is too early. I have not heard anybody that told me that this appointee made by the President did not merit it. In fact, when I listen to senior military officers they tell me that the appointment of military chiefs by President Buhari, that if you talk about merit, that was it. Yesterday I saw somebody appointed as Acting Chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, you cannot question that appointment.

But let me say this, where you come from must not be a qualification. For those who are interested in politics of sharing, I am not interested; I am interested in the politics of baking. If the competent hands come from one family and they will deliver to the nation so be it. If a Kenyan can be elected as an American President why should we continue to discuss South South or South East.

When Father Mbaka talked about the shame of Onitsha-Enugu road, people misconstrued his comments. Let me tell you, if the Igbos were marginalized, it was by President Jonathan under the PDP.

Even the consultancy they did in the name of the second Niger Bridge, the expenditure they incurred which is not on ground, about 700 million dollars of that was funded from the Sovereign Wealth Fund which is money not belonging to the Federal Government but to the 774 Local Government Areas, the 36 states and of course the Federal Government.

We called them to appear before us and they said they spent 700 million dollars from the Sovereign Wealth fund and I asked them where is the bridge? That 700million dollars amounted to N140billion on the second Niger Bridge and that money belongs to the three tiers of government.

Okonjo Iweala was shouting on the need to have a Sovereign Wealth Fund but you can see what they used the money for. Those are the issues the Igbos should ask Jonathan to account for. Where is our bridge? Where is the dual carriage way from Onitsha to Owerri and Enugu. The roads in the South South as Obasanjo will say are embarrassment to the people of the South South. You cannot drive to Yenagoa, no road; so much noise about East West road, where is the road?

You go to Akwa Ibom the Federal roads there are in bad shape. I have listened to governors from the South East, they will tell you there are no roads in the South East. So if the Igbos were marginalized, it was President Jonathan and the PDP. If Nigerians know what these people did, they will stone them to death – jungle justice. 700 million dollars gone on second Niger bridge without any bridge to show.

So this issue of appointments, I think the Igbos should ask for good roads, second Niger Bridge, things that will bring development and enhance trade and not concentrating on where the appointments are coming from because whoever is appointed will not even give you his salary. I want our focus to shift away from who gets what in cake sharing to who is benefiting what from government development policies.”