The “soaked sliced bread” remark made by Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, was criticized by a coalition of pan-Igbo sociopolitical pressure groups as going too far in expressing ingrained animus toward the Igbo people.
WITHIN NIGERIA reports that Tinubu, while speaking at the APC campaign rally in Enugu, had urged the South East region to “work hard, sweat for this party until they deliver victory for him”, adding, “But nobody will give you any credit, you are working hard, you’re sweating now. We want you to sweat well now for this party until you deliver victory.
“Until Bola Tinubu becomes the president of Nigeria, we will not give you but a soaked sliced bread.”
As a response to Tinubu’s remarks, the SERG said in a statement on Thursday that it is more than just an insult, contrary to what some may have been led to believe. The statement was signed by Chief Willy Ezugwu, the SERG’s President and National Coordinator.
He said;
Tthe insinuation that Igbos will languish in longer marginalisation unless Tinubu becomes President is an acknowledgement that he APC deliberately schemed the South East region since 2015.
Tinubu’s comments represent refreshed version of President Muhammadu Buhari’s comment that he would not treat the South East equally with the Northern region that voted for him.
The group claimed that these comments by the APC presidential candidate were an expression of the party’s disdain for the South East region.
Religious Bigot
Ezugwu recalled that several sources had made it known that Bola Ahmed Tinubu, an APC presidential candidate, had dissented from South East party delegates in the run-up to the party’s primary election, claiming that campaigning in the region was a waste of time.
According to him, Tinubu never wasted time contacting his party’s delegates in the area, yet they consistently supported him either by “hook or by crook.”
The SERG said:
It is taking his disregard for the South East too far.
When his anointed Governor, Babajide Raji Fashola deported Igbos from Lagos State and dumped them at the Onitsha Bridge Head in the middle of the night, where was Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu?
When his ally and the Oba of Lagos threatened Igbos to drown in the lagoon if they voted against his preferred candidate, where was Tinubu’s voice as a democrat?
A Tinubu presidency will be a disaster as he has continued to exhibit the distinguishing characteristics of not only a civilian dictator but also a religious bigot masquerading as a liberal Muslim.
His choice of a Muslim running is a deliberate expression his real self as having no regard for Christians and now he blew the final whistle that signalled the climax of his hatred for the South East region.
We also monited a report indicating that the Tinubu’s hatred for the South East also robbed off on the traditional institution as some highly embarrassed Enugu traditional rulers led by the State Chairman of the Traditional Rulers’ Council, Igwe Lawrence Agubuzo were snubbed, disrespected and insulted by the APC Presidential candidate after waiting for several hours for his arrival.
Can Tinubu openly snub an Oba in the South West or an Emir in the North?
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