By Peter Agba Kalu
I saw The Special Assistant to the former Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar on Digital Media Strategy, Demola Olarewaju, X account post that has gone viral, where he faulted President Bola Tinubu’s appointment of Bianca Odumegwu Ojukwu as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in his midterm cabinet reshuffle.
Olarenwaju warned that Bianca won’t help Tinubu get votes from the Southeast in 2027 because she has zero electoral value.
He described Bianca’s ministerial appointment as a political gambit to soften the ground amidst other moves to be made by Tinubu ahead of elections.
Perhaps trying to educate Igbos about who our daughter, mother and wife is, since we lack knowledge of that, Olarenwaju described our late Eze Gburuburu wife as “Bianca is a ‘nobody’ in the political configuration of the SE… So Bianca is not at all likely to move any voter but she won’t need to -she is only one piece of a larger plan to provide an excuse for APCNEC (APC/INEC) rigging.”
Now, President Tinubu made 6 different appointments, but Demola decided to single out the only person he described as nobody to pay an attention to. That’s Okay. But, l don’t think he is in the right position to tell Igbos about who Bianca is and, l don’t think there’s one single Igbo person who will dismiss Eze Nwanyi Nde Igbo as “Nobody”. But, that’s not even why l am here. I am here to clear one vital issue that the post raised and that is placing Nee Onoh in comparison with some APC political forces in Igbo land.
I want to expressingly clear one fact and make it know from day one that Iyom Bianca Ojukwu appointment has nothing whatsoever to do with politics. She’s here with one focus, to render selfless service to mother land and anything else beyond that count her out. APC political players in Igbo land should continue with their politics with PDP in their fight for political control of Igbo land, they all should please allow her to focus on her duty.
When Bianca was Nigerian Ambassador to Spain she left such a high mark for the image of Nigeria to an extend that several things that were thought impossible, were made possible. There’s this document, l think it’s called the “Police certificate” more of a security clearance paper that shows you’re crime free, that the Spanish government refused to issue Nigerians living in Spain. She intervened and made the issuance of the certificate possible to Nigerians. The Igbos who travel mostly in Nigeria who benefited from that, alongside several other Nigerians are not the same people you will come and tell how Bianca is nobody politically.
Everyone of us are aware that President Tinubu inherited a country which international image was totally damaged. Nigerians are told to step aside at various international airports and sometimes, once you’re holding the green passport you’re pronounced guilty at sight. They don’t ask you if you’re APGA, PDP or APC. The country needed a non-political actor who commanded a highly respected global image to correct it. If Tinubu saw those qualities in Bianca and reached out to her knowing her place in APGA, it simply means that the president is looking beyond local politics to pick a non-political person to help stop all these embarrassing situations Hausas, Fulanis, Yorubas, Ijaws, middle belts and Igbos faces across the globe.
Just recently, a video was circulating about Nigerians who are in prison in Mali and they are females. Crying out, some of them revealed that they have been there for 5 to 4 years and they have been forgotten.
Libya, Benin, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Angola,
Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. From South Africa, Nigerian prisoners are found in several countries around the world, including the United States, United Kingdom, China, Thailand, India, South Africa, Brazil, Russia, Malaysia, and Indonesia, etc etc.
Several of them are being kept in conditions less than human, some no doubt, committed crimes, while several others are innocent, but fail victims because of where they’re from.
You ask yourself, why are our embasseies not intervening? Why are we leaving Nigerians like orphan children to languish in jail? Families are in tears, wives are in anguish, children are dropping out of schools, mothers are clinching their teeth in deep anguish and pains, thinking about who will bury them. Pains of sorrow has soaked the pillows of many families who has cried and cried, all because their innocent children are no longer heard about because they were arrested for being Nigeria and thrown into detention overseas.
These are part of the reasons why lots of people started cursing the day their parents born them as Nigerians. Outside bad leadership and the bad economy that Buhari handed over to Tinubu, these factors too contributed in no small regard to the agitator for separation that is dividing this nation.
Again, according to various reports and government sources, there are Nigerian prisoners in the United States over 200 Nigerian inmates are serving sentences in U.S. prisons, according to the Nigerian Embassy in Washington D.C. This list is outside Nigerian-American citizens. In the United Kingdom: Approximately 1,000 Nigerian nationals are imprisoned in the UK. In 2020, the Nigerian government reported that over 500 Nigerians were imprisoned in China. Today, the number has increased to over 1,000. Thailand has a significant number of Nigerian prisoners, in India there are over 1, 300 Nigerian nationals imprisoned. Russia, Malaysia, Indonesia and a friend of mine in the Philippines told me about 100s of Nigerians in their prison.
Unfortunately, the above list are not exhaustive, as Nigerian nationals may be imprisoned in other countries as well. We have ambassadors in these countries who are paid and retained in those countries to represent Nigeria, why are they keeping quiet why innocent Nigerians are being picked on the streets and treated lower than humans?
With this challenging senairo as focus Bianca’s appointment is nothing but a call for service and her acceptance is nothing short of the heart of a mother who heard the angonizing cries of her children and decided to make the sacrifice, risk it all and step out to see how she can clean their tears.
This is the conversation we should be having about her appointment, not reducing it to South-East APC vs PDP politics. Bianca doesn’t have any atom of betrayal thought towards that and the political players in the South-East are fully aware of that.
You can accuse her of accepting to serve the Tinubu administration because most of those having the above mentioned challenges are Igbos, because they’re the ones that travel most, l will ask you, are Igbos not Nigerians?
If they’re, why must Nigeria abandoned them to suffer around the world. If Nigeria doesn’t want to treat Igbos as one of them, then allow them to go their separate ways.
But, these are not just Igbo problem, this is a Nigerian thing. Nigerians are one of the most traveled in Africa. Bianca is here to serve Nigerians, anyone that is concerned with the welfare of our people should not reduce her appointment to politics. I even read a post where some people who’re totally ignorant about the ministry of foreign affairs were talking of her accepting because she want to and eat money, l laughed and told them to enjoy their ignorance. I will address that later and several other issues as the time goes by.
By the end of her tenure many Nigerian families will be on their knees thanking God that Nee Onoh, Iyom Ojukwu was here. Please, you can play politics with every other appointments of Tinubu, but you see this one, it’s for our benefits to come together and support this Lady will be bold enough to intervene and question any nation when a Nigerian business person got double crossed. Bianca cannot be there and refused to make sure Nigeria intervene when the need be for you.
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