A former spokesman of President Bola Tinubu’s electoral campaign, Dr Josef Onoh, says the South East’s refusal to join in the protest against hunger is a protest against Nigeria, not the Tinubu administration.
Dr Onoh said the reluctance of the region was as a result of Nigeria’s refusal to accord the South-East its due status as an integral part of the country.
He asked the rest of the regions in the country not to expect the South-East to be in the vanguard of the present protest when they feel that the South East is “not good enough for appointments, Nigeria leadership or any other substantial inclusive infrastructure”.
Dr Onoh’s submission followed Senator Shehu Sani’s tweet on why the protest is not taking place in all parts of the South East region.
“The south east is silent because even under a democratic setting, the south east region is on high level of militarization, and the protesters are also chanting for military rule which would be more devastating to the region. The south east is silent because our silence has exposed the ‘real enemies’ of President Tinubu.
“The south east is silent because we do not have the political luxuries, influence, entitlement and benefits the regions participating in the protest have for they have continuously basked in its glory. The north have produced presidents, the south-south and south West but not the south east, hence we see it as a problem between husbands and wives while we are the houseboy. The same north asking why we are not protesting forgot they once told us we are a dot in a circle so why has the dot become important now?
“When we had tears to shed, no region whipped away our tears. When we had a voice to shout, they said we were mad. When we cared, they said we had other motives. Today we are the least represented region in the current administration, we feel we are not wanted, we feel we are hated, we feel isolated, we feel distant, we feel the current administration doesn’t care about us hence we have continuously lived under a state of hardship and hopelessness that we don’t have any more tears to shed nor energy to protest.
“We have been so traumatised to the extent that we now laugh rather than cry but our laughter is actually the highest level of walling. Unfortunately we feel the pain of the protesters, you cry and we hear your message loud and clear but unfortunately we are helpless to offer any support or join in your protest against our president. Our only message is ‘welcome to the club.’ Nigerians are suffering but we the south easterners have never known anything other than hardship and suffering. We are constantly treated like outcasts in our country.
“Irrespective of the above, I still believe in President Tinubu, he might not have all the solutions but if we come together as a nation, irrespective of whether we like each region or not, I believe a variegated group must agree they want to be a people, preserving our tolerant permissive society and to achieve that, we must have the will power to do so rather than protest”, he said.