President Tinubu’s Cabinet: ‘Blame Yourselves For Low Allocation’ – VON DG Knocks Southeast APC Leaders 

The Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu, has taken a swipe at Southeast leaders of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) over low representation of the zone in President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet.

According to him, they should blame themselves and not the President for the low allocation of nominations to the zone.

They argued that while the zone was given its statutory five slots out of the 48 nominees, other zones got extra slots.

Okechukwu’s outburst follows claims that President Tinubu marginalised the southeast zone regarding representation in his cabinet.

However, Naija News learned that the VON DG, who is a chieftain of the APC, told pressmen that while others were busy lobbying for the elephant’s share, they were chasing for the rats’ portion.

He said, “Instead of blaming him (Tinubu), we should rather blame our so-called South-east APC leaders.

“As you are aware, I am not a President Tinubu’s apologist; however, we must be diligent in our analysis by adopting pragmatic analysis.

“My take is that we should more pungently blame our APC’s leaders, who, instead of genuine advancement of Southeast interest, were more or less petty in their lobby strategy. After all, one chairs the APC Governors Forum, the foremost Power Bloc, and the other was already in the Senate.

“To be honest, I was worried when I noticed them blocking our first 11, and one ridiculously was busy rooting for himself as if he is the only qualified person from his state. Their strategy was akin to chasing rats, whilst others were bidding for elephants.”

Speaking further, Okechukwu denied supporting the President to gain favour, contrary to the thought of many.

He said it was on record that he was the only one who, in December 2021, publicly appealed to Tinubu “to support any Igbo in the race, and his men replied instantly that the kingmaker wants to be King.”

Okechukwu asked: “Is it not because from day one these so-called leaders mangled and dislocated Southeast APC’s structures from ward level to state level that we scored the poorest regional presidential election score?

“Secondly, is it not because they bidded petty, and blocked our first 11, that we lost the moral high ground for bigger cakes?

“If there are blame games, they should be laid squarely where they belong most.”