By Ike Abonyi
“ _For unity to be meaningful it has to be creative, not the unity of Jonah in the whale but the unity of holy matrimony. The first can only lead to defecation, the second to procreation.” – Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu
In 1989 the late Biafra hero, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu authored a book titled ‘Because I am Involved?’ which sold like a hot cake as not a few rushed to buy it wanting to read the Biafra story from the main character in the war but they all got disappointed that the war hero was in an amorous not in a war mood while writing the book. The book was all about his love for Bianca Onoh, a multiple beauty Queen and daughter of the former Governor of Enugu state, Christian Chukwuma Onoh, popularly known as C.O.Onoh, who he was to marry later.
Ever since that marriage, Bianca, like the husband, has become a symbol of Ndigbo in a way. With the physical demise of her husband, she became to the people a physical reminder of the man they so much loved.
So when you see Ndigbo react with mixed feelings the way they did on the appointment of Bianca as a Minister, it’s because they are involved as she is the widow of their hero that they are connected to. The people are still trying to figure out the significance of the appointment to Ndigbo because Bianca is not just the daughter of a prominent Igbo or the wife of an Igbo hero but a symbol and torchbearer.
She is also very much aware of her status and tries to dignify it. That was why she enjoyed enormous public goodwill in 2022 when the immoderate wife of the former Governor of Anambra state, Ebelechukwu Obiano, tried to embarrass her publicly and she reacted with a deserving dirty slap on her chick.
Even though Mrs Obiano was the First Lady at the time, Bianca had a bigger status being seen as the former First Lady of the defunct Biafra that still exists in the heart of the people. Ojukwu, dead or alive, in the heart of the people, remains bigger than all the Igbo Governors put together.
Feelers from some parts of the country show that some few bigoted anti-Igbo characters are even grumbling that the Biafra hero is still being recognized even after his death, for such people the civil war that ended 54 years ago is still raging in their hearts and they need to know that Igbos are not even elated by the appointment in any way as they find the position belittling, that an Ojukwu’s wife is getting a junior Minister where the entire Igbos have only two senior Minister just as Ogun state alone. And notwithstanding that, she was being appointed to replace another woman from Anambra state who was dropped as a senior Minister.
Given the raging political perception in the media space that Bianca may have been picked by Tinubu for political leverage in Igboland, if so, it’s necessary to place this caveat loudly that such a dream is not realizable it’s dead on arrival. Even Bianca may find it difficult to convince her Children, Ojukwu’s blood, to vote for any government that shows enormous disdain for Ndigbo.
If Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu was alive to see his wife being nominated a Minister of the federal republic, his likely first directive to the wife would be to ask the President what plans he has for Ndigbo. If there is no clear answer to that question including an assurance to release Nnamdi Kanu from incarceration, Ojukwu will ask the wife to reject the appointment. Ojukwu will also not have allowed the wife to serve as a junior Minister. He would be heard asking the wife, to serve as a junior Minister to who? Readers may see all that as arrogance, but that was the man every Ndigbo came to love and admire and who also made all the sacrifices to serve his people in time of need. It was the love to serve that drove Ojukwu into the Army, becoming the first University graduate In Nigeria military straight from Oxford, UK, to enter the Nigeria Army at a time when his father was the richest man in West Africa. There is no better place to serve a nation than in the military, perhaps not today’s military, which has been dwarfed by corruption and unprofessional acts.
But here we are, Ojukwu’s wife with all her qualifications aside from being the wife of such an outstanding Igbo leader, has settled for a Minister of state in a government that has held Nnamdi Kanu in prison even after the court has declared that he be freed. Bianca knows for a fact that she is in a very delicate situation serving in the APC regime, which has, in large quantities demonstrated some contempt for her people.
The thing about Ndigbo in today’s Nigeria is like a man on the ground who has nothing to worry about falling or a man who is not expecting and who has no reason to be disappointed. But that notwithstanding, Ndigbo has resolved not to lower their dignity for any position, no matter how juicy. Igbos do not drink in every cup just because they are thirsty, in need of a drink, or dehydrated.
After Muhammedu Buhari’s eight years and Bola Ahmad Tinubu’s eighteen months reign, Igbo man has developed all the needed thick skin to cope with the most horrendous attitude as being witnessed by the current regime. But on Bianca’s appointment, Ndigbo is involved, and she knows that she would have no business lasting in that position if the disparaging of Igbos is not addressed. Whatever negotiation that led to her getting appointed was supposed to have considered these salient points.
No person in Igboland today stands a better chance of putting the Igbo question on the front burner for this government to see and appreciate than the wife of Ojukwu, who has now found herself in the federal cabinet. What is the Igbo question you may ask? Igbo question refers to the historical and ongoing struggles of the Igbo people, a major ethnic group upon which the political tripod foundation of this country was laid to seek equality, justice, and self-determination within the Nigerian state. Among its major challenges are provocative limitations in representation in government, economy, and military. The economic disparities caused by inadequate infrastructure and security concerns have made virtually every Igbo community vulnerable to violence and extortion.
What are the basic needs of Ndigbo In Nigeria’s space today? They want a restructured country that guarantees greater autonomy for the regions and a right to decide its own political and economic fortune. They want fair and balanced representation and access to resources and a revisit to past injustice arising from the civil war that ended in a no Victor, no vanquished understanding under a 3R- Reconciliation, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction.
It’s the existence of these prevailing injustices that gave rise to some of the self-determination bodies like the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), and the umbrella body of Ndigbo cultural organization, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo.
Unfortunately for Ojukwu’s wife, the government she is serving has not shown any sign of addressing the Igbo question. Rather, empirical records under this regime, as it concerns Ndigbo, are worrisome. The handling of the Kanu case by this regime has not shown any sign that it cherishes the inclusivity of Ndigbo in any way.
Even the recent cabinet change by Tinubu that brought in Bianca instead of addressing the strongly perceived bias against Ndigbo worsened it. Before the cabinet reshuffle, out of the 52 members, including ministers and cabinet-level officials, Ndigbo had only the mandatory five, one for each state as prescribed by the constitution. Out of those five, it had four senior Ministers(Works, Women Affairs, Trade and Industry, and Science and Technology). But with the latest changes, Igbo senior Ministers were reduced to only two (Works and Science and Technology). The senior Minister from Imo state, Dr Doris Uzoka-Anite, was demoted from trade and Industry to Junior Minister of Finance ostensibly to run errands for the Yoruba senior Minister from Ogun state, while another person from the same Ogun state took over her position as senior Minister. Bianca was also directly affected because the person she replaced from Anambra state was senior Minister but she got junior Minister. Out of 22 federal security agencies, South East has only one,
If you are one of those, who argue that a Minister is a Minister, here is the correct definition of junior Minister as captured by the current Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, on May 24, 2023, at Mohammadu Buhari’s cabinet valedictory speeches where he served as junior Minister. He advised the government to scrap the Minister of State because it was a constitutional aberration.
Arguing his point further, Keyamo said, “Ministers sit in the cabinet as the eye of Mr President in each state of the federation. It is therefore against the intendment of the drafters of our constitution for a representative of a state to be reclassified as against another representative of another state.“The schedules of duties of ministers and ministers of state that intend to cure some of these anomalies hardly help the issues.
In addition, the provision that ‘ministers of state’ cannot present memos in council, except with the permission of the minister, is another anomaly. It means the discretion of the minister of state is subsumed in the discretion of the minister, yet both of them represent different states in the cabinet,” he added. “It also follows that it would be difficult to assess the individual performances of the ministers of state since their discretion is shackled under the discretion of the ministers.“As a result, many ministers of state are largely redundant, with many going to the office for symbolic purposes and just to while away the time. Files are passed to them to be treated only at the discretion of the other minister and the permanent secretary.”
What it means is that only two Igbo Ministers can present memoirs in the cabinet. Against this backdrop, Ndigbo will not expect Bianca to continue in this regime if, after one year, she is unable to secure the release of Nnamdi Kanu and make the administration address some of the burning issues on the Igbo question, otherwise, she will be destroying all her husband stood for that made him indispensable Igbo hero. May God bless her endeavor.
