By Olu Adekunle
David Umahi, Minister of Works, recently told APC faithful in Ebonyi that “Bola Tinubu is the Biafra we have been looking for”.
Since he seems to have misplaced the file, let’s remind Honourable Minister Umahi that Biafra was never about concrete
On May 30, 1967, Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu declared the Republic of Biafra after the 1966 pogroms where “thousands of Igbo civilians were killed, mainly in northern Nigeria”. Survivors fled with “anything they could handle”. The war that followed killed 1 to 6 million people with many children dying of kwashiorkor under blockade.
The ideology and agitation was not juicy appointments and reinforced concrete pavements. It was self-determination, security, and dignity for a people who felt hunted and excluded. Ojukwu later said he wanted a restructured Nigeria where every group feels equal and secure.
IPOB and MASSOB today still anchor their agitation on perceived ethnic marginalisation and systemic discrimination and underrepresentation in politics and this perception is what gives support to the unending quest for for secession.
So when Umahi reduces that to “Tinubu has integrated the South-East”, he is not being statesmanlike. He’s auctioning history for applause.
Umahi points to the Calabar-Ebonyi-Benue-Abuja Superhighway at N454 billion, the Enugu-Onitsha corridor, and his own seat at the Federal Executive Council. Good for him. But infrastructure is not integration.
First, the insults haven’t stopped.
Peter Obi, arguably the most popular Igbo politician nationally and globally, has been dragged by virtually every political interest group since 2023. Ethnic and regional actors have campaigned against him not on policy, but on tribe. And yes, politicians from various regions have publicly sworn that the Igbo will never rule Nigeria.
Does Umahi not see that? Or is it easier to pretend it doesn’t exist once your own convoy is running smoothly?
Second, marginalisation is still the lived experience.
Igbo groups in the diaspora say Umahi lacks the mandate to speak for Ndigbo and called his comments an insult to the sensibility of the Igbo. Prominent Igbo leaders told him to shut up because he has no mandate to speak for the Igbo.
Third, the Southeast is still insecure and underfunded. Kidnapping and killings continue. The South-East Development Commission admitted it received hardly any funding in the 2025 fiscal year.
What makes this worse is that Umahi himself used to know better. A few kilometers of concrete do not erase 58 years of grievance, nor do they resurrect the million dead.
As Governor of Ebonyi and Chairman of the South East Governors’ Forum, Umahi himself openly acknowledged the marginalisation of the Southeast. In May 2021, speaking on live TV, he said: “I cannot say that there are not some pains in terms of some of the issues in the South-east and so with other regions”. He admitted the word “marginalisation” was real for many, and urged dialogue instead of pretending it didn’t exist.
He also warned in 2021 that the declaration of the Southeast as a “red zone” due to insecurity would deprive the area of federal projects, calling it a “self-inflicted injury” that needed to stop
All that was before he became Minister of Works. Now he says there will be no need for Biafra again. Now he tells the Southeast to back Tinubu or risk losing federal projects.
This is the Nigerian political script: condemn marginalisation when you’re outside, celebrate integration when you’re inside. It’s not leadership. It’s transactional flattery. As one Igbo group put it, “we have seen serial betrayers who are now living in regrets after being used and dumped by their slave masters”.
Umahi doesn’t speak for Ndigbo. He speaks for Umahi and his immediate circle. History is full of men who sold their people for a morsel of porridge. Most end up with neither the porridge nor the people’s respect.
Now, a Word to some politicians of Igbo extract who may wish to toe the same line as. Umahi and politicians who worship at the altar of relevance…
You cannot trivialize a movement born in mass graves, pogroms, and exile just because you want to be in the President’s good books.
The Biafra agitation is a demand for equity, security, and belonging. If this administration wants to address it, it requires several processes. First and foremost, it requires which political restructuring that gives the Southeast real stake, not symbolic appointments. Secondly, there is the issue of security reforms that end extrajudicial killings and the IPOB crackdown cycle. Third, is that of economic inclusion that treats the Southeast as a partner, not a beneficiary of favors as can be deduced from Umahi’s statements.
Until then, telling Igbos that Biafra is here because we have juicy appointments is like telling a widow her husband is back because you bought her a wreath. It’s insulting to say the least
Biafra was born in blood, not in budget lines. It was a cry against exclusion, not a craving for contracts.
David Umahi is free to praise President Tinubu. But he should not drape that praise in the shroud of Biafra. That’s not integration. That’s sacrilege to millions of Igbos.
Relevance earned through sycophancy is cheap. And history remembers who sold out, and who stood firm.
The Igbo people know what they are fighting for. They don’t need a minister to redefine it for them at an APC ward meeting, especially not one who used to say the opposite before Abuja called.
My personal view on the matter.
Olu Adekunle is a Public Policy Analyst/Public Affairs Commentator and he writes from Abuja.
