Buhari’s first term below average, says Ezeife, Amaechi

Sequel to the inauguration of President Muhammadu Buhari for a second term in office, some prominent Nigerians, comprising groups and individuals, have lamented the last four years of the administration, citing killings, kidnappings and other lapses among the vices that scored the regime low. 

Among those who aired their views on the administration are some of the leaders of the South-East geo-political zone, who rated as below average, while lamenting that the zone was not well included in the scheme of things. 

In their assessment of the first term of President Buhari administration, First Republic Minister for Aviation, Chief Mbazurike Amaechi and former governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, said South-East didn’t gain much from the incumbent government. 

Ezeife said the four years of Buhari’s first term in office was flawed by the imbalance in political appointments as well as capital projects. 

His words: “It is a known fact that the last four years recorded below average on the part of the South-East geo-political zone. When you look at the appointments of ministers and other political positions, you will discover that we did not gain much. 

“How can you appoint a professor and former Vice Chancellor of a university, a minister of State for Education while the senior minister knows nothing about education? When you look at the appointment of Service Chiefs in the military, how many of them are from the South East? Even when an Igbo person was to become the Inspector General of Police, they dropped him and appointed another person.” 

He however noted that there are federal projects in the area, which he said, only took off towards the electioneering campaign, while advising that the projects should not be abandoned midway because the elections are over. In the same vein, Amaechi lamented that the wounds of the Nigerian Civil War had refused to heal following what he called the politics of noninclusion during the first four years of Buhari administration. “The way and manner our people are being integrated in the Nigerian project leaves much to be desired and it goes to remind us of the Civil War that ended about 50 years ago. 

“The policy of Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction put in place by the then regime of General Yakubu Gowon has not changed anything because successive administrations in the country have continued to subjugate us at every time. 

“We urge the President to get us more involved in the governance of Nigeria because it is only the Igbo that are the real Nigerians. We are everywhere in Nigeria and we go to any part of the country and develop the area and help the economy of the area to grow,” he said. Amaechi however expressed happiness with the pace of the construction of the Second Niger Bridge and other federal roads in the South-East.