KENNETH OKONKWO ACCUSES PRESIDENT TINUBU OF DELIBERATELY SIDELINING THE SOUTH-EAST, CONDEMNS IGBO SUPPORTERS OF THE ADMINISTRATION

Veteran Nollywood actor, lawyer and politician, Kenneth Okonkwo, has launched a fresh and blistering criticism against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, accusing the president of deliberately sidelining and marginalizing the Southeast region in the political and administrative structure of Nigeria.

Speaking during an interview on Symfoni TV, the actor-turned-politician passionately questioned the loyalty and conscience of any Igbo person who continues to support President Tinubu, insisting that the president’s conduct and utterances since the conclusion of the 2023 general elections clearly reveal deep-seated hostility toward the Southeast.

Okonkwo recalled a statement allegedly made by President Tinubu shortly after the elections, which he interpreted as evidence of resentment and discrimination against the Igbo people.

“After the election, he said, ‘These people (Igbos) came to Lagos when they were 12 years, and they didn’t support us. 

“So he had the mind to emasculate and finish the Southeast,” Okonkwo recounted.

The veteran actor noted that such rhetoric was not only divisive but also indicative of a broader pattern of political exclusion that the Southeast has endured under the current administration. He maintained that the president’s post-election posture suggested an entrenched agenda to weaken the political influence of the region.

Okonkwo further pointed to President Tinubu’s controversial choice of a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket during the 2023 election as a clear indication that the Southeast was never considered a priority in his political calculation.

“On top of it, he went for a Muslim-Muslim ticket. The Southeast is 99.9% Christian. 

“Whoever is choosing a Muslim-Muslim ticket does not have any intention to have them in the presidency for any reason,” he emphasized.

According to him, this decision effectively alienated the predominantly Christian Southeast and reinforced the perception that the region had been deliberately excluded from national governance.

In a hard-hitting rebuke, Okonkwo condemned politicians from the Southeast who support President Tinubu, describing them as traitors to their people and collaborators in their region’s marginalization.

“That is why I’m saying anybody from the Southeast that is supporting Tinubu is an enemy. You are not a Southeast indigene,” he declared bluntly.

He described such support as an act of complicity, accusing these individuals of enabling policies and decisions that work against the collective interest and survival of the Southeast.

“Politics is about whoever is trying to finish your people and you’re supporting the person, you are complicit,” he said, stressing that loyalty to a political leader should never come at the expense of one’s ethnic or regional identity.

Okonkwo concluded by reiterating his position that the Tinubu administration has consciously sidelined the Southeast, both ethnically and religiously, in its appointments and policy directions.

“Ethnically, religiously, Tinubu has excluded us from the scheme of things,” he stated with emphasis, portraying the current administration as one that has systematically marginalized the Southeast in the corridors of power.

The veteran actor’s remarks have since generated widespread debate, reigniting discussions around Nigeria’s delicate ethnic balance, political inclusion, and the persistent feelings of alienation amo

ng people of the Southeast region.