Appointing Bianca Ojukwu As Minister Won't Win You S/East Approval – Sen Abaribe Slams Tinubu

Enyinnaya Abaribe

Enyinnaya Abaribe, the Senator representing Abia South in the National Assembly has dismissed any significance attached to the appointment of Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu as Minister-designate.

Recall President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had on Wednesday appointed Bianca, the wife of the late Biafra leader, as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.

Reacting to the appointment in an interview on Arise TV, Abaribe stated that the appointment will not change the perception of the South East towards the president.

The former Senate Minority Leader said adding Bianca Ojukwu to his cabinet will not win Tinubu approval in the South-East region.

He said: “She deserves to be a minister in her own right but making her a minister is not meant for the South East. The point really is that those who are advising Mr. President are not giving him the proper advice.

“What the South East wants is ‘do to me the way you are doing to others’. You can give it to her, she deserves it. But that will not bring the South East to say ‘because you have given to her, therefore it has covered all the anomalies.

“What would have satisfied us is you have 50 ministries, you share it by six, what does that give everybody? At least each zone will get eight. That would have told everybody that you are even-handed.”

The APGA senator said President Tinubu has handed the whole of the economy to the South-West where he comes from.

Abaribe, “Central Bank of Nigeria, Ministry of Finance etc. Just check it. And so you ask yourself, is this what is contained in the constitution? Section 14 (4) says you ought to do things so that you don’t make others feel that they are not taken care of.

“As far as we are concerned, we don’t think they are not getting it right.”



Abaribe said the fundamentals of Tinubu’s government were not right, adding that the hardship in the country was as a result of the failure to deal with the fundamentals.

He said, “What are the fundamentals, first, we are a poor country with a massive debt overhang. What do you do when you are poor? The first thing you do is to cut your coat according to your size. But we came in, the first in was to bloat the cabinet which means the cost of governance is not going down.

“Everybody expected that he should be able to shrink his cabinet. Everything is being given to everybody free of charge, we are buying new planes and all that. What do you expect? Those things must be paid for.

”What does the man on the street see? He sees you living in extravagance, enjoying and you are telling him things are getting rougher. He is seeing inflation rise and, the cost of fuel and electricity rise. So, what you will get on the street is mass anger.”