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Dr. Josef Onoh, a former spokesperson for President Bola Tinubu‘s campaign, has offered a nuanced interpretation of the South East’s decision to sit out the hunger protests, suggesting that this move represents a broader dissent against the Nigerian establishment, rather than a specific indictment of the Tinubu government.
According to Dr. Onoh, the South East’s lukewarm response to the hunger protests is a direct consequence of Nigeria’s chronic neglect of the region’s legitimate aspirations for equal status and recognition as an indispensable component of the country.
Dr. Onoh urged other regions to refrain from expecting the South East to take a leading role in the current protests, given the region’s lingering sense of exclusion and marginalization, which has been perpetuated by its consistent omission from key appointments, leadership positions, and meaningful infrastructural investments.
Dr. Onoh’s comments came in response to Senator Shehu Sani’s earlier tweet, which questioned the conspicuous absence of protests in certain parts of the South East region, prompting Dr. Onoh to shed light on the underlying reasons for the region’s lukewarm response.
In a statement, Onoh said, “The South East is silent because the protesters demanded scrapping of the 1999 constitution and to replace it with a people-made constitution, without providing their own people-made manuscript for that new constitution.
“The South East is silent because the protesters demanded that the president should toss the nation’s legislative arm of the government, the National Assembly, and exhibited ignorance of the President’s lack of constitutional powers to scrap any arm of the government.
“The south east is silent because even under a democratic setting, the south east region is on high level of militarization, and the protesters are also chanting for military rule which would be more devastating to the region. The south east is silent because our silence has exposed the ‘real enemies’ of President Tinubu.
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“The south east is silent because we do not have the political luxuries, influence, entitlement and benefits the regions participating in the protest have for they have continuously basked in its glory. The north have produced presidents, the south-south and south West but not the south east, hence we see it as a problem between husbands and wives while we are the houseboy. The same north asking why we are not protesting forgot they once told us we are a dot in a circle so why has the dot become important now?
“When we had tears to shed, no region whipped away our tears. When we had a voice to shout, they said we were mad. When we cared, they said we had other motives. Today we are the least represented region in the current administration, we feel we are not wanted, we feel we are hated, we feel isolated, we feel distant, we feel the current administration doesn’t care about us hence we have continuously lived under a state of hardship and hopelessness that we don’t have any more tears to shed nor energy to protest.
“We have been so traumatized to the extent that we now laugh rather than cry but our laughter is actually the highest level of walling. Unfortunately we feel the pain of the protesters, you cry and we hear your message loud and clear but unfortunately we are helpless to offer any support or join in your protest against our president. Our only message is ‘welcome to the club.’ Nigerians are suffering but we the south easterners have never known anything other than hardship and suffering. We are constantly treated like outcasts in our country.
“Irrespective of the above, I still believe in President Tinubu, he might not have all the solutions but if we come together as a nation irrespective of whether we like each region or not, I believe a variegated group must agree they want to be a people, preserving our tolerant permissive society and to achieve that we must have the will power to do so rather than protest.”
