Igbos are not fairly treated in Nigeria," former minister of information and communication

In a lecture delivered at the Princess Alexandra Auditorium, UNN, Frank Nweke, the former minister of information and communication complained bitterly about the unequal treatment meted out to Ndi Igbo. 

To prove his claim, he recounted different events where Ndi Igbo were robbed off their share in the affairs of the country. One of them was how none of the South-eastern was found worthy to lead any of the four security agencies in Nigeria. Eight were from the North, one from the South-south and one from South-west. There were zero representatives from the south East. 

He gave another instance where the same breach was applied to the appointment of the federal ministers with three of the six ministers from South-East occupying subordinate roles as ministers of States.

He went on to say that in 2020, the federal government approved 22.7 billion US dollars for  34 projects to be financed by the facility with none of these mapped for the South-east region. He stated how the national assembly approved the loan without any interrogation of the project and why the South-east will not partake as one of the beneficiaries. 

He also talked about the Eastern railway that would not be completed due to the unavailability of funds. According to Frank Nweke, the Eastern railway was stopped because of the claims of insecurity and insurgency. A total of 1.2 billion dollars was allocated to the Kaduna-Kano and 1.9 billion dollars to the Kano-Maradi rail projects which are still ongoing in the North despite the high rate of Boko Haram insurgency. 

Again, he pointed out the negligence of the Igbos by the representatives of the two major political parties in Nigeria, APC and PDP.

Ending his speech on ethnic inequality, he urged Ndi Igbo to wake up and take action. He reminded them that no one would build a table for them to sit at the head. "We must take responsibility for our choices and be pragmatic about them," he urges South Easterners.