KACHIKWU'S STORIED APPOINTMENT, THE NEEDLE HAS NOT MOVED?

Icheoku says yes, Igbo Deltans as well as every other Igbo people, anywhere and everywhere, are bona fides Igbo people just like their kits and kins majority of whom are concentrated in Southeastern Nigeria Igbo heartland. Icheoku had once written an article on the imperatives of this fact of consequence, encouraging Ndigbo to start an honest claim to Rivers State and Delta State as full Igbo states. Arguing further that the River Niger supposed demarcation notwithstanding, families are often and could be spread across rivers. As obtains everywhere including the Northern part of Nigeria, Ndigbo Southeast should not because these their brothers and sisters live across the River Niger now disclaim them as fellow Ndigbo. The said published article was prelude to the election of the late Ralph Uwechie as then president of Ohaneze Ndigbo. 

So with the premise laid out, Icheoku emphatically  says that Dr Ibe Emmanuel Kachikwu, the new Group Managing Direct of NNPC, is now officially the first Igbo appointee of the President Muhammadu Buhari's presidency. Icheoku says congratulations to both the appointee and the appointer as by this, President Muhammadu Buhari has reluctantly finally acknowledged that there is at least a "qualified" Igbo person to admit into his government? Recall that the president said he appointed only "qualified" individuals as service chiefs to head the various wings of the Nigeria armed forces as well as security agencies, implying the lack of any qualified Igbo person for any of the positions? It is very obvious that this president's lack of truthfulness or rather version of truth is akin to someone starring at a blazing hot summer sun and still deceptively mouthing that it is very dark outside. But lets move on.

Icheoku says the excitement of the appointment ends in the fact of the complete and total Igbo-ness of Dr Ibe Emmanuel Kachikwu having been established beyond doubt; being true 'nwaafor-Igbo' and is now officially the first Igbo person to be appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari into his government after over twenty five other top-notch appointments so far made by him. At last, an onye-Igbo has made it through the proverbial eye of the needle that is President Muhammadu Buhari implied bar against Ndigbo making it into his government. Icheoku wonders if the biblical camel walking through the eye of the needle is this tough and if it qualifies as an apposite allegory here.  President Muhammadu Buhari shamelessly claimed that no Igbo person is qualified enough to make any of his appointment thus far? With all known facts about Ndigbo competency and qualifications considered, Icheoku wonders if it is rather being well-versed in reading the Koran and/or reciting other Islamic verses and incantations or being proficiency in other Islamic practices and cause is what having "necessary qualifications" means in the eyes of President Muhammadu Buhari? 

Anyway, but what indeed is the worth of the office of the Group Managing Director of NNPC to Ndigbo and of what use is it particularly for Ndigbo that they should be salivating that one of them is now assigned the task of revamping the moribund corruption-cesspool that is Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation?  Icheoku asks is this appointment just a ploy to tap into Kachikwu's great knowledge about the oil industry and use him to clean the Aegean stable that has become the NNPC; and later have him dumped or shoved aside to make way for a chosen Hausa/Fulani prince? How does such a herculean assignment benefit Ndigbo, especially when the new GMD will later be subsumed under a Minister of Petroleum who as the political head and bureaucrat in chief will have power over him and his actions? The former Petroleum Minister Diezani Allison Madueke went through such four GMDs within a spate of five years, using and dumping them as she willed. So any incoming Petroleum Minister might similarly "use and dump" Dr Ibe Kachikwu or consign him to irrelevance if he or she chooses and even have him summarily dismissed if so pissed off by him or his actions? 

So what indeed actually is the benefit of this appointment to Ndigbo that elicits all the euphoric excitement in Igbo speaking Nigerians one may ask; other than that it creates a sense of belonging for Ndigbo within the greater Nigeria society. Icheoku says appointing an Igbo technocrat as head of the NNPC to be eventually placed under a Hausa/Fulani or Yoruba or even a minority bureaucrat Minister of Petroleum does not necessarily in any way confer any added advantage or benefit to Ndigbo or ordinarily empower them. But regardless, Icheoku says President Muhammadu Buhari by this appointment has finally found a "qualified" onye Igbo to admit into his government and hopefully he will continue to look hard enough to find other "qualified" Ndigbos as he continues to fill available vacant positions in his government. Kudos to him - the man from Daura in finally finding a needle in a haystack?  Icheoku prays that Dr Ibe Emmanuel Kachikwu will bring the can-do spirit and attitude of Ndigbo to his new assignment at the NNPC and get the expected job done, done well and done quickly too. Icheoku says in his onerous task of repositioning the NNPC to be better and do better with managing Nigeria's oil resources, he shall succeed and also triumph IJN.