Igbos – The Biggest Beneficiaries Of A United Nigeria.
I have said several times in my earlier articles that none of our ethnic groups is marginalised in Nigeria, this is simply a narrative that politicians and opportunists use to manipulate their people. Today I’m going to supply as many as possible statistics on Nigerian states by regions and how they benefit from the so called national cake. It’ll surprise you to see that the most privileged regions in Nigeria are not the northern regions, but rather eastern regions, basically the southern part of Nigeria. As a matter of fact if any region should claim marginalisation it should be the north, not the south. Please take a good look at these figures since facts and figures don’t lie and you’ll see that the biggest beneficiaries of the Nigerian union is the southeast and the Igbo people
Number of Federal Civil Servants state by state.
- Abia 3579
- Adamawa 1727
- Akwa Ibom 4416
- Anambra 3576
- Bauchi 1172
- Bayelsa 957
- Benue 3951
- Borno 1822
- Cross River 2681
- Delta 4419
- Ebonyi 865
- Edo 3890
- Ekiti 2613
- Enugu 2695
- FCT 533
- Gombe 1218
- Imo 5825
- Jigawa 675
- Kaduna 3199
- Kano 1545
- Katsina 1237
- Kebbi 875
- Kogi 5186
- Kwara 2537
- Lagos 2180
- Nasarawa 1452
- Niger 2193
- Ogun 4669
- Ondo 3393
- Osun 3321
- Oyo 3244
- Plateau 2542
- Rivers 1675
- Sokoto 732
- Taraba 1112
- Yobe 744
- Zamfara 543
This illustration below might show a better clarity
NE with a population of 19.0m has 7,793 civil servants
NW with a population of 35.8m has 8,806 civil servants
SE with a population of 16.4m has 16,540 civil servants
NC with a population of 20.3m has 17,661 civil servants
SS with a population of 21.0m has 18,038 civil servants
SW with a population of 27.6m has 19,620 civil servants
We can further make it clearer by showing how many employees are taken from every one million people in each of the geographical zones.
The result is:
1st. SE has 1,009 Employees per million
2nd. NC has 970 Employees per million
3rd. SS has 859 Employees per million
4th SW has 711 Employees per million
5th NE has 410 Employees per million
6th NW has 246 Employees per million
Here we can see that South Eastern Zone has over 1000 people engaged in the public service of Nigeria in every 1 million Igbo people, whereas only 246 people are engaged in North West. Remember that this is the Zone of the President of Nigeria. Curiously South West, the Zone of the Vice President is the least in Southern Nigeria with the employment of 711 people in a million.
POLITICAL APPOINTEES
I guess it’ll be interesting for you to see the trend as regards Political Office holders.
Probably, those that lost out in the Public Service, are compensated with Political offices.
NW has 51 political appointees from 7 states
NC has 47 political appointees from 6 states
NE has 45 political appointees from 6 states
SW has 45 political appointees from 6 states
SS has 45 political appointees from 6 States
SE has 41 political appointees from 5 states
These translate to:
1st. SE: 2.50 appointees in a million.
2nd. NE: 2.37 appointees in a million.
3rd. NC: 2.34 appointees in a million.
4th. SS: 2.14 appointees in a million.
5th. SW:1.63 appointees in a million.
6th. NW:1.42 appointees in a million.
Alternatively:
1st. SE: has 1 appointee in every 400,000
2nd. NE: has 1 appointee in every 422,000
3rd. NC: has 1 appointee in every 427,000
4th. SS: has 1 appointee in every 467,000
5th. SW: has 1 appointee in every 614,000
6th. NW: has 1 appointee in every 704,000
Once again topping the list of Beneficiary is South East with one political appointee for every 400,000 people. As if it is an intentional act, NW, from whence the President hails has the least of 1 political appointees for every 704, 000 people while the figure for Osinbajo’s Zone is 614,000 and is the least in the South. (Credit to Dr Joe Abah – DG, Bureau of Public Service, Ebonyi state.)
A marginalized group is not given the right to be actively involved in the political life of the country. This obviously is not happening in Nigeria, because the Igbos have their own governors, they vote for their governors, the people who rule over them are of their ethnic groups. Some people will claim that those who rule over them came as a result of corruption; well that happens all over Nigeria, not just among the Igbos in the Igbo land. In marginalized societies, the marginalized groups are not allowed to send their children to school or receive higher education, I don’t believe this is happening in Nigeria. In that sense, only the poor people are marginalized in Nigeria; since the Igbo people control the economy, they are surely not marginalized.
The marginalized group are not allowed to speak their native languages. Tell me who stopped the Igbos from speaking their language? The marginalized group are not allowed to practice their religion. Are the Igbos not allowed to practice their religion? A marginalized group are not allowed to carry out socio-economic activities on the level of the privileged groups. Are the Igbos not allowed to carry out socio-economic activities on the same level as everyone else?
In marginalized societies, a discriminated groups are not allowed to intermarry with the privileged groups, we simply don’t have that in Nigeria. As I have mentioned above, even my family is intermarried with Igbo people. My cousin Bode who is like a twin brother to me, married an Igbo girl and paid the full bride price or dowry as the case may be. Marginalized people are not allowed to have a voice in the mass media: newspapers, television or radio. Igbos don’t just have that right in their own state, but even in most of the other states in Nigeria where the majority are not Igbos. Igbos are allowed to have their voice in the media all over Nigeria. I am not saying there are no cases of marginalization here and there, but this will be in individual cases not a systematized thing in the federal government of Nigeria against the Igbo people.
If we are to look at a list of marginalized people groups in our world today, we will see that we cannot compare what these people are going through to what the Igbos are enjoying in the Nigerian nation.
The biggest indigenous motor manufacturing company in Nigeria is owned by an Igbo man, more so it is situated in the heart of Igbo land itself, if it had been in the north or Lagos some could say it’s not benefiting the east. Yes some people are complaining that Nigerian government is not doing enough for this company called Innoson. They refuse to do their research because it’s in public space that the owner of the company openly expresses his gratitude and admiration to the present Nigerian federal government, saying he has received more support from them than from previous state or federal government. Some others complain why is the government not forcing all government agencies to buy only Innoson cars as their official cars. My question is why can’t the Anambra state do the same, even though the Nigerian army, police and other agencies have already done so.The biggest indigenous airline (Air Peace) is owned by an Igbo man, the owner of this entity is one of the most patriotic Nigerians I’ve ever seen, more so he loves and is grateful to this present administration of Muhammadu Buhari as a regime that has greatly enhanced his business. So my friends I only writing for honest and sincere analytical thinking people, those who want to know the truth about Nigeria and how things stand in relations to all ethnicities in our country. The facts are there in the open, if you are a true lover you’ll find them.
For The Love Of God, Church And Nation,
Dr. Sunday Adelaja.
