Charles Ajunwa
A chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia and former Commissioner for Finance and Economic Planning in the state, Prof. Phillips Nto, has appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to appoint an indigene of the state as minister to replace Hon. Nkiriuka Onyechiocha who resigned more than six months ago.
He said the non replacement for Abia’s ministerial slot has raised a lot of questions concerning the status of Abia in the Federal Executive Council.
Speaking when he received APC stakeholders from Ututu, Prof. Nto argued that the replacement of Onyejiocha in the federal cabinet will ginger APC to campaign more vigorously for the reelection of President Tinubu.
He noted that states whose ministers resigned from the cabinet like Oyo and Bauchi had their replacements almost immediately while that of Abia is still lingering.
“I really don’t know what is responsible for the delay, but I believe that Mr. President should move swiftly to address the issue and give Abia people a sense of belonging,” he said.
According to him, APC members in the state are now overburdened in answering questions by opposition parties on why Tinubu has not appointed an Abia indigene minister.
“Mr. President will make our job easier if he appoints an Abia person as a minister so that we could also be part of the administration,” he said.
Nto, who was a senatorial aspirant in APC, appealed to President Tinubu to appoint anyone of his choice to the position assuming that there was a disagreement among the stakeholders.
He told the APC stakeholders that they have enough campaign materials for Tinubu and APC because of the achievements of Tinubu’s-led government in the last three years.
According to him, through the removal of fuel subsidy, more money is now available to both tiers of government for their developmental initiatives.
He said under Tinubu, an Igbo man has been appointed a service chief, something that eluded the race for eight years while the road network in the South-east is being rehabilitated.