The Minister of Labour And Productivity, Chris Ngige, has called on the South-East, never to expect anything from the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, until further notice.
The Minister, based his argument on the premise that the South-East never invested in Buhari’s 2015 Presidential campaign, by voting the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Ngige reiterated that he tried to persuade the Igbos, to wisely invest in Buhari’s Presidential bid in 2015, but they refused, due to the lack of co-operation by many South-East leaders, who threw their weight behind former President, Goodluck Jonathan.
He said: “This is not a question I should answer, because I’m a Politician. But before these things happened, before the government of Jonathan failed, I went to all the Igbo fora, to tell them that the Jonathan government will fall”, he told Thisday.
“I went to our Ohanaeze Ndi-Igbo in Enugu, twice. They could not even reply to a letter written by Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, seeking for a meeting with them”, he added.
Ngige stated that: “They refused to listen to me; and to make matter worse, there was no voting in most of the areas in the South-East; they just allocated 5 percent to APC.
“It was that bad. It is too late to cry, when the head is off. Politics is business in a way, you invest in business and you reap profit.
However he said: “Yes, that is what it is. But all I want to tell you, is that we played bad politics; we made a bad investment, because they invested in the Jonathan Presidency. They invested in Jonathan. more than the South-South, where he hails from.
“I am not saying that is enough to marginalise them, or not allow them come in, but we are there. I will continue to speak for them, and when there is anything to be distributed; we will make sure that the South-East gets its own portion. But they will not get excess portion.
“Even in a family where the head of the family goes to the farm to harvest his yams, those who accompany the farmer to the farm get more share.
“When they bring back the yams, some of them will be damaged, and the pieces are put out in one section. Then the whole yams are put into the barn, and some will be sent to the market for sale.
And some will be sent to the family centrally for distribution among the family units.
“Those ones that are in pieces, the extras, will be shared among those that went to the farm. We did not benefit from the extras with people who went to the farm. We didn’t go to the farm in the South-East”, he added.
