Elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark has issued a warning to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu not to toe the path of his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari who marginalised the Igbos.
The leader of the Ijaw Nation pointed out that Buhari for reasons best known to him, excluded the South-East from major appointments during his administration.
Clark, in a letter to Tinubu, said the region was also unfairly treated in the allocation of funds during the immediate past administration.
He expressed concern that Tinubu had also allegedly started to show the same trait and called on him to retrace his steps.
Clark wrote: “President Buhari did everything to subjugate the Igbo for reason best known to him. Perhaps it may be necessary to cite some examples. The NNPC board, which he constituted when he came into office, had nine members, one from the South-West, one from the South-South, and no member from the South-East, even though three South-East states – Abia, Anambra and Imo – are oil-producing states. The remaining members, including his Chief of Staff, came from the North, a non-oil-producing region.
“However, he later tried to amend it when he appointed Senator Ifeanyi Ararume as Chairman of the second board; and he later replaced him with Margery Chuba-Okadigbo before he took office. He (Sen Ifeanyi Ararume) took the matter to court and won but the situation has not changed.
“Also, when President Buhari attempted to obtain loans from foreign financial institutions, which exceeded 30% of the GDP, which was not in the interest of the country; and the loan of $22.7bn, of which less than 1% of the amount was to be allocated to the South-East zone while other zones were allocated higher percentage for infrastructural projects.
“That was a violation of the constitutional requirement to ensure a balanced economic development of Nigeria in accordance with President Buhari’s Oath of Office. In President Buhari’s 17-man security chiefs, 14 of them came from the North and only three from the South, excluding the Igbo from the South-East.
“Mr President, even in your administration, the discrimination and injustice against the Igbo has not abated.
“The old Eastern Region and the old Western Region, to which I belonged, were equal competitors and partners before and during the First and Second Republic but today, you have appointed 10 Yorubas as ministers from the South-West, and only five ministers from the South-East, and you even failed to give them the ministerial appointment due to their region that would have made it six ministers. There is no justification for this grave omission and no effort has been made to correct it.”