Ngige booed for defending Buhari’s appointments

It was a rough day for the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige on Monday as stakehold­ers at a South East Town Hall Meeting booed as he defended President Muhammadu Buha­ri’s appointments.
The meeting was organised by the Federal Government for the South East zone in Enugu to showcase its achievements to the people.
But Ngige incurred the an­ger of the people when he at­tempted to defend Buhari over his appointments since he as­sumed office.
The hall was filled with shouts of “No! No!” as Ngige took turn to speak on Buha­ri’s performance to the audi­ence who largely believed that Ndigbo are marginalised by the Federal Government.
Ngige was specifically re­sponding to the criticisms of Buhari’s non-appointment of an Igbo as one of the service chiefs when the crowd booed him.

The meeting was attended by leaders of Ohanaeze Ndig­bo, traditional rulers, members of the National Assembly from the zone, among others.
He did not give up as he said: “We (the Igbo) must have to put on our thinking caps; we don’t have to cry and wallow in self-pity.
“If tomorrow President Bu­hari says ‘I want to do a con­stitutional conference’, I can assure you that whatever you lobby for and get in the confer­ence will be fully implement­ed,” he said.
In his address, Gover­nor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enu­gu State appealed to President Buhari to fulfill the electioneer­ing promise to revive the Enu­gu coal mines.
Ugwuanyi said that the ap­peal had become imperative following the epileptic power supply in the country.
He said that the poor state of electricity in the country was discouraging investments.
The governor also urged the Federal Government to make substantial investments in the Ugwuoba Gas Field in Oji Riv­er Local Government Area.
“I recall the President’s cam­paign promise to revive the coal mines in Enugu and utilise it to generate electricity. Coal is a ma­jor energy source in some coun­tries of the world and we have it in abundance in the state. If this is done it will directly or in­directly create job opportuni­ties for millions of Nigerians,” he said.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Moham­med, said that for the first time about 70 percent of the over N500 billion raised from the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee in June came from the non-oil sector, while 30 per­cent came from the oil industry.
He said that “to those who have been mocking our change agenda, we say let them contin­ue to entertain themselves, but we remain undaunted because this change is irreversible.”
Mohammed noted that even as change is a process and not an “instant coffee”, it has be­gun to manifest in many ways, touching on the war against corruption, accountability in governance and the economy, among others.
The ministers of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyea­ma; Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh; Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Okechukwu Enelamah; Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole; Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachukwu and the Minister of State for En­vironment and Mallam Ibra­him Usman Jibril attended the Town Hall Meeting.