Clark called on President Tinubu to immediately restructure the country if the nation was to remain a united entity.
The leader of the Ijaw Nation, Chief Edwin Clark, has alleged that former President Muhammadu Buhari did everything during his eight-year tenure to subjugate the Igbos from the South-Eastern region of the country.
Buhari ruled Nigeria between 2015 and 2019 and was accused of nepotism and deliberately excluding people of South-East extraction from non-mandatory appointments.
Clark noted this in a letter toPresident Bola Tinubu, wherein he highlighted the alleged mistreatment the region suffered during the time of the last administration.
The elder statesman pointed out that, even though the region had three oil-producing states including Abia, Anambra and Imo States, Buhari refused to appoint anyone from the South-East in his constitution of the Board of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation
Besides the refusal to appoint service chiefs from the region, Clerk recalled that the former President also allocated less than 1% of a $22.7bn loan to the South-East zone, while others received higher percentages.
“President Buhari did everything to subjugate the Igbos 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 9 members, 1 from the South-West, 1 from South-South, and no member from the South-East, even though 3 South-East states; Abia, Anambra and Imo are oil producing states; the remaining members including his Chief of State came from the North, a non-oil producing region.
“However, he later tried to amend it when he appointed Sen Ifeanyi Ararome as chairman of the second board; and he later replaced him with Margery Chuba-Okadigbo before he took office. He (Senator Ifeanyi Ararome) 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 that exceeded 30% of the GDP which was not in the interest of the country; and the loan of $22.7 billion (USD), 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, is 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 3 from the South excluding the Igbos from the South East,” the letter read.
