Cabinet Reshuffle: How Cross River’s Ethnic Politics Truncated Edu’s Return

By Akinjide Aina, Abuja Bureau Chief

Before Wednesday’s cabinet reshuffle which left her fate hanging on the balance,  former Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu, was optimistic she would bounce back and restored to her Ministry.

On suspension since January over an alleged corruption which the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC said it was investigating, the former Minister did not, however, see the fate that eventually befell her coming until late Tuesday evening.

Impecable Aso Rock sources told this Magazine that a statement from the EFCC formally clearing Dr Edu of the corruption allegations was to be made last Tuesday preparatory to President Tinubu’s announcement of her restoration in the cabinet shake up.

It was against this backdrop that the embattled former Minister, the Magazine was informed, instructed her key aides to be on the stand- by for resumption of duty. But then, Tuesday ended without a word from the anti- graft agency and panic set in.

Several calls she made to highly placed individuals within and outside government who had earlier given her rock solid assurances of her return to the cabinet yielded no fruit.

And when Wednesday did come and she was neither restored to her Ministry nor assigned to a new one, it then dawned on Dr Edu that the same forces from her home state, Cross River,  that had assiduously worked against her nomination and confirmation as Minister last year have again massed against her- her recall from suspension.

Interestingly, in announcing the cabinet reshuffle and sack of some Ministers, the presidency was silent on Edu. She was neither pronounced sacked nor reassigned; instead Nentawe Yilwatda from Plateau state was named as her replacement as Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, thus fuelling speculations that there is still hope for Edu’s absorption into the federal cabinet. “There are chances that Dr Edu will be reabsorbed because I can tell you authoritatively that the EFCC found nothing against her but she may face a kind of demotion as Dr Doris Nkiruka Uzuka-Anite, former Minister For Trade and Investment and  Senator Owan Eno, former Minister for Sports Development faced. Dr Edu is likely to be deployed to another Ministry as Minister of state”, an Aso Rock source told the magazine.

Recall that Senator Eno, who together with Dr Edu represented Cross River in the cabinet before Wednesday’s  reshuffle was removed as Minister for Sports Development and made a junior Minister or Minister of state in the Ministry of Trade and Investment. Similarly Dr Uzoka Anite who was Minister for Commerce and Industry before the reshuffle is now downgraded to a junior Minister in the Ministry of Finance. She represents Imo state in the cabinet.

Meanwhile, sources close to Dr Edu told this Magazine that the former Minister is aware that ethno- geographical politics in her home state was the source of her woes and is therefore, not bitter with Mr President over her replacement.

Said the source: “She knows where her problem is coming from and therefore not surprised about the turn of event.

“Dr Edu is not bitter about her fate and also not bitter with President Tinubu…she knows that ethnic and zonal politics which has been the bane of Cross River, a multi-ethnic and multi- cultural state,  is the source of her predicament and she has taken it in good faith.

“I can tell you that her replacement and non reassignment to another Ministry was neither as a result of incompetence, lack of confidence in her by Mr President nor because of the so called corruption allegation levelled on her..it was purely as result of the pervasive ethnic politics in Cross Rivers; there certain powerful individuals in the state who feel that she is not Cross Riverian enough to represent the state in the federal cabinet.

“There are also others who insist that she and Senator Eno coming from Cross River Central Senatorial District as Ministers left the Southern and Northern Senatorial districts short changed”

Born of Igbo ( Ebonyi state) father and Yala( Northern Cross River) mother and married to an Abi( Central Cross River) man, controversy over Edu’s real state of origin has dogged her political and public service career in Cross River.

Some entrenched interests and ethnic irredentists in the state insist she is Igbo should therefore not be given and political office or public service slot meant for Cross River.They cite her middle name, Chiomaobi and her father’s Igbo origin to buttress their argument, not minding that on the strength of her marriage to a Cross Riverian, she can constitutionally adopt Cross River as her state of origin.

“It was based on this argument and ethnic sentiment of Dr Edu’s Igbo background that some ethnic warlords in Cross River opposed her appointment as Commissioner for Health under former Governor Ben Ayade as well as her selection as National Woman Leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC and later her nomination as Minister representing Cross River.

“It is also based on this primordial ethnic sentiment that the same forces pulled all strings to stop President Tinubu from lifting her suspension and restoring her to the federal cabinet in the recent cabinet reshuffle”, the magazine was further told.

Meanwhile, speculations are rife in both Calabar, the Cross River state capital, and Abuja that some loyalists of the state Governor, Senator Bassey Otu who are of Efik extraction are mounting pressure on him to present an Efik person to President Tinubu to replace Dr Edu in the cabinet.