The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, has called on the Igbos to join the All Progressives Congress in order to be eligible to produce Muhammadu Buhari's successor in 2023, stressing that the APC was the easiest political platform the South-East geopolitical zone could use to ascend to the presidency of the country.
The call is coming a day after a close ally of the President Muhammadu Buhari, Mallam Ismaila Funtua, said any Igbo who wanted to be President should join the ruling APC.
Funtua, who featured on Arise Television’s The Morning Show on Saturday, had said, “They (Igbo) should belong. They should join the party. They want to do things on their own and because they are Igbos, we should dash them the president? That was the reason I asked: is it ‘Turn By Turn Nigeria Limited’?”
“If the Igbo want to be President, then they must belong. If you don’t belong, then you can’t be the President. That is the issue and we have seen it with MKO Abiola of blessed memory. He went out of his way, he cultivated people.”
Voicing the same opinion, Ngige, while speaking with APC members on Sunday in Alor, Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State, said Buhari had shown enough goodwill to the South-East that the area should support him by showing heavy presence in the APC.
The minister had on the occasion shared 3,700 bags of rice, grinding machines, generators, sewing machines to party members at various levels in the state. Cash and food were also shared on the occasion.
“The roads which my administration constructed in 2004 are what people are still using today. The All Progressives Grand Alliance has failed us. 2021 is my last fight. This is our last major fight. I will fight the way I did when I contested the senatorial election of Anambra Central in 2010.
“The Federal Government of President Buhari has done for well for the Igbo. The Social Investment Programme for women of President Buhari is second to none. The Enugu airport is receiving attention with N10bn mapped out for its renovation and refurbishment.
“Before long, International airlines will be struggling to operate there. The 2nd Niger Bridge is 45 percent completion and it will be toll free unlike what the Obasanjo and Jonathan administrations proposed.
“What I’m begging you is for our party to be united. Any person who doesn’t have the spirit of unity in our party should tell us now and leave us.”
