Abia Oil Communities demand ministerial slot from Buhari

Indigenes of Abia State Oil communities in Ukwa East and West Local Government Areas Abia State have respectively called on the President Muhammadu Buhari to consider appointing their sons and daughters as ministers as he picks members of the next Federal Executive Council.

The stakeholders who spoke to journalists in Aba, the commercial hub of the state on Sunday stated that it has become essential that they demanded for a position that they claimed has been robbed the people of over the years despite the economic relevance of the two local governments to the economy of the state and federal government.

The group who lamented neglect by the government of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last 16years warned that the peaceful dispositions of the people of the areas in the face of economic and infrastructural underdevelopment of the two Local Governments should not be taken for granted.

According to the Ukwa stakeholders, appointing eminently qualified sons and daughters of Ukwa extraction as ministers would go a long way to not only heal the wound inflicted on them by the state and federal government in the last 16 years, since the two interventionist agencies of the Federal and State governments to address the plight of the people of the Niger Delta; the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and Abia State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission respectively have been “hijacked” by powers that be in the state and federal levels.

Alleging that many contractors who were awarded contracts by the NDDC were those from outside Ukwa land said that the situation is worsened by the fact that contracts embarked in the area are either abandoned by the contractors or poorly executed.

Comrade Chimsom Ekeke, spokesperson of the group said with large quantity of crude oil deposits that made the area the largest centre of operation of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) on land, Ukwa has nothing to show for it in terms of infrastructural development, political representation and appointment.  

According to Ekeke, “with two local Governments of Ukwa West and Ukwa East, the people of this only oil producing area in Abia State believe that the only political patrimony they have with their Ngwa “brothers” is the Abia South district senate seat which of course they consider should be rotated between the two areas.

“However, sadly enough, by 2023 the Hen that lay the golden egg for Abia (Ukwa people) would have lurched for 16 straight years, waiting to have a bite of the senate pie as Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (Ngwa man) who has been in the senate for the past 12 years had just been given a certificate of return by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to return to the senate for the fourth time running.

“It was against this backdrop that the question that easily agitates the mind of right thinking people from the area is whether an Ukwa man can ever represent Abia South again in the Senate, considering the fact that majority of the Ngwa people of Abia South who are far more in population may have vowed not to vote for any Ukwa son or daughter who aspires for the senatorial seat

“During President Ebele Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, it was Ngozi Okonjo Iweala from Abia Central that was appointed Finance Minister. Okechukwu Enelama is currently the Minister for Trade and Investment and he is from the same Umuahia North and Abia Central as Iweala. Ojo Maduekwe was Minister of Foreign Affairs during Late President Umaru Yar’Adua and Minister of Culture and Tourism under former President Olusegun Obasanjo and later became Transport Minister. All these appointments, none has been given to Ukwa son or daughter even when we play crucial role in the economic growth of the state.

You know that Abia today is an oil producing state because of the oil deposit in Ukwa land. When other places in Niger delta have taken to militancy to get what they want, but our people have decided to remain peaceful, but in the face of our peaceful nature, it seems that we are being neglected the more”.

Ekeke regretted that the Ukwa people have not benefitted from the system in whatever form, stressing that it is not in the interest of equity and justice that the Ngwa (Obi Ngwa) should hold the positions of governor, senator and two recent federal appointments which went to Chief Nyerere Anyim and Dr. Chris Akomas without the Ukwa man having any.

In his words, “since Nigeria is a country that preaches equity, fairness and justice all the time, it is imperative that the president considers a native of Ukwa for ministerial position. This has become more so because since the return of democracy in 1999, no Ukwa man has been appointed a minister and now is the time to redress the anomaly.

He said it would be good for President Muhammadu Buhari to reward Ukwa people who have remained peaceful in the face of extreme provocations by making an Ukwa son a Minister.