By Dan Nwomeh

There is an obvious irony in a write-up accusing Governor Peter Mbah, an Igbo governing an overwhelmingly Igbo state, of the absurd practice of ethnic bigotry against his own people by favouring Yoruba people over fellow Igbo, while repeatedly reducing Nigerians to their ethnic identities and presenting the presence of a few Yoruba professionals in the Enugu State Government as evidence of “Yorubanisation” of the state. “Since coming into office, Governor Mbah has demonstrated a clear preference to work with Yorubas than with Enugu people” (sic), the author recklessly charged.

The real ethnic bigotry in this disingenuous attempt to contrive a controversy is not in Governor Mbah’s decision to appoint a handful of people from other parts of Nigeria; it is in one Ugwuagbo Chizoba’s dangerous ethnic stereotyping of those appointees and his attempt to turn their Yoruba identity into a reason for questioning their competence or qualification to serve Enugu State.

This is an important distinction, because a governor who searches for the best hands wherever he can find them is not practising ethnic bigotry. He is instead practising the very cosmopolitanism that a modern, ambitious state like Enugu needs. A writer who examines the performance of a public official, regardless of where that person comes from, is doing legitimate scrutiny. But when the principal evidence offered against an appointee is that he or she is Yoruba, and when a few Yoruba professionals serving Enugu State are presented collectively as evidence of a sinister ethnic pattern, the argument ceases to be about competence and becomes an exercise in ethnic stereotyping dressed up as political criticism.

That is precisely what the said Ugwuagbo Chizoba does in his write-up with the inflammatory and inciting title, “Ethnic Bigotry: Governor Mbah’s Yorubanization of Enugu and the Questions That Are Becoming Too Difficult to Ignore”. In the write-up, Ugwuagbo tells us that ethnic bigotry means being prejudiced against people because of their ethnic group. Then, almost immediately, he begins identifying the people he considers unfit for public office primarily by their ethnicity; a “Yoruba woman” here, an “incompetent Yoruba man” there, and even “Yoruba girls” allegedly occupying positions around Government House. Their ethnic identities are repeatedly placed at the centre of the narrative, as though being Yoruba is itself a relevant qualification for determining whether they deserve to hold public office in Enugu.

This is the fundamental contradiction that destroys the entire write-up. You cannot credibly denounce ethnic bigotry while making ethnicity the central basis of your case against public officials and repeatedly highlighting their ethnic origins, yet offering no credible evidence to support the serious allegations of incompetence you make against them, as one would ordinarily expect from a so-called journalist.

If a Yoruba professional is appointed in Enugu, the appointment is presented by Ugwuagbo as evidence of “Yorubanisation.” But he never seriously considers the obvious alternative explanation, which is simply that the governor may have chosen someone he believed possessed the experience or competence required for the job. That is a remarkably convenient way to cobble together a piece of political propaganda. The ethnicity of the appointee becomes the evidence, the conclusion and the accusation all at once.

Beyond the blatant falsehoods, including the false attribution of certain government positions and institutional leadership roles to Yoruba people who do not actually hold them, the write-up is conspicuously devoid of evidence to substantiate the serious allegations it makes.

Take the case of Ladi Akeredolu-Ale, who is described dismissively as an “incompetent Yoruba man.” What is the evidence offered for this sweeping conclusion? Zilch. Yet Akeredolu-Ale came into the Enugu State Broadcasting Service leadership with decades of broadcasting experience, including senior management experience at Channels Television and previous leadership of the Ondo State Radio and Television Corporation.

One may certainly question his performance at ESBS. Public officials should be subjected to scrutiny. But the relevant questions are: What targets were set for him? What resources were available? What did he inherit? What has he accomplished or failed to accomplish? What measurable indicators demonstrate incompetence? His Yoruba ancestry answers none of those questions.

Had Ugwuagbo risen above his clannish insularity and parochial outlook and taken the time to examine the pedigree of these appointees, he might have been far more circumspect, and perhaps even humbled by their credentials rather than scoffing so derisively at their competence and addressing them with such intemperate disrespect.

Adenike Okebu brings formidable professional credentials to her role as Senior Special Adviser on Revenue, including a BSc in Accounting from OAU, Ile-Ife, MSc in Finance from Nottingham Trent University, Fellow of ICAN, Certified Fraud Examiner, Chartered Certified Forensic Accountant, Associate of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria and Member of the Institute of Directors. With experience spanning EY Nigeria, Deloitte, BUA Group, Platform Capital and Pinnacle Oil and Gas, she combines Big Four audit experience with expertise in revenue assurance, financial governance and fraud detection. In Enugu, she has been central to efforts to plug revenue leakages, modernise revenue administration and drive the exponential growth of the state’s IGR, while also mentoring accounting students at the University of Nigeria Enugu Campus, helping to bridge academic training and professional practice.

Governor Mbah’s Special Adviser on Health, Dr. Yomi Jaye, is a medical doctor and healthcare-management professional with more than two decades of experience across Africa and the United States, with qualifications including MBBS, MBA and a Master of Public Health from the University of Liverpool, as well as international training at Harvard Medical School and MIT. In his role, he has brought his clinical, public-health and management expertise to Enugu’s healthcare reforms, helping to secure long-delayed accreditation and upgrades for the state’s medical and nursing training institutions, including the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria’s approval of a 350-student admission quota for Medicine and Dentistry at ESUT (the highest admission quota approved for any medical school in Nigeria at the time), and the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria’s accreditation of ESUT’s Nursing Sciences programme. Beyond government, his private-sector and philanthropic work includes founding Cecy Health Consult and the Cecilia Oyebola Foundation, which recently supported healthcare interventions including the renovation and re-equipping of the neonatal ward at ESUTH Teaching Hospital, Parklane.

Dr. Akinbayo Olasoji, Commander of the Enugu State Forest Guard, combines advanced academic training with decades of high-level security experience, having retired from the Nigeria Police Force as a Deputy Commissioner of Police just before his appointment, after serving in senior operational positions, including the strategic DCP Operations at the Enugu State Police Command. He holds a PhD and has brought his policing and intelligence experience to the professionalisation of the Forest Guard, strengthening its operational structure, inter-agency collaboration and community-based security strategy. Under his command, the Forest Guard has participated in significant security operations, including the rescue of kidnapped victims from forest hideouts, demonstrating that the organisation is evolving into a serious component of the state’s security architecture.

Captain Tolu Ita, the CEO and Accountable Manager of Enugu Air, is a highly experienced aviation professional whose credentials combine technical expertise, executive leadership and international exposure. She was trained and licensed as a pilot in Nigeria and the United States and has nearly 20 years of professional experience in aviation and business, including a distinguished career at Aero Contractors, where she rose to become Dash-8 Fleet Manager. She has also held other senior executive positions, serving in aviation policy and regulatory advisory roles involving ICAO and AFCAC, and undertaken executive training at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. As CEO of Enugu Air, she has already overseen a major achievement in securing the airline’s Air Operator Certificate (AOC) in just five months and three weeks, compared with the typical 15–24-month process, with the NCAA commending the airline for meeting the required safety and operational standards.

Taken together, these appointments represent less than three per cent of Governor Mbah’s top-level appointments over the past three years, a statistically insignificant fraction of the administration’s overall appointments, yet each demonstrates its willingness to deploy people with proven professional competence and relevant experience to demanding portfolios.

If then a governor appoints a person from another ethnic group because that person has the required qualification and experience, what exactly is wrong with that? It is called meritocracy, not ethnic bigotry. And Peter Mbah has a particularly compelling personal reason for believing in that philosophy. Mbah is not a man whose worldview was formed within the narrow boundaries of his ancestral community. His business career is a practical demonstration of the benefits of a cosmopolitan Nigeria.

He built Pinnacle Oil and Gas from scratch into a leading energy business in Lagos. The company’s Lekki terminal, inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari in October 2022, was described by the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission as a $1 billion investment and as a strategic national asset. The project was developed as a massive petroleum storage and distribution infrastructure occupying a large expanse of land within the Lekki Free Zone.

Think about it for a moment. An Igbo businessman from Enugu went to Lagos and built a massive oil and gas infrastructure project in Yoruba land. It could not have happened without the accommodating disposition of the Yoruba owners and host communities, Lagos authorities, regulators, financial institutions, and the many Nigerians who worked with him.

The success of Pinnacle is therefore not merely a business story. It is also a powerful demonstration of what is possible when Nigerians are allowed to live, work, invest and build outside the narrow confines of their ethnic homelands. That is the Nigeria Peter Mbah knows. And that is the Nigeria an ambitious Enugu must build. Imagine if Lagos had adopted the parochial logic of Ugwuagbo’s write-up. Someone could have said: Why should an Igbo man be allowed to build a massive petroleum terminal here when there are Lagosians who can do it? Why should an Igbo businessman be entrusted with such a strategic investment? Fortunately, Lagos did not think that way. It judged the investment on its economic value, the company’s capacity, regulatory compliance, financing and the potential benefit to the state and the country. That is precisely how Enugu should work.

And many Igbo have been beneficiaries of the cosmopolitan attitude that Ugwuagbo now seems to regard as anathema when applied in Enugu. Let’s consider Ben Akabueze, an Igbo man who served as Lagos State Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget from January 2007 to May 2015, first appointed by Governor Bola Tinubu and subsequently reappointed for two terms by Governor Babatunde Fashola. This was not a mere decorative position. Economic Planning and Budget is among the most strategically important portfolios in any state government. Were there no competent Yoruba economists and accountants in Lagos? There is also Joe Igbokwe, an Igbo from Anambra who became a prominent political figure in Lagos and rose through the ranks of the Lagos political establishment before being appointed by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu in 2019 as Special Adviser on Drainage and Water Resources.

Unbeknown to Ugwuagbo and his nativistic fellow travellers, people of South East origin have occupied, and continue to occupy, substantial professional and career positions in Lagos State’s public service, including within the directorate cadre and the education system. A friend from Enugu State who lives in Lagos once told me about his wife’s experience at an interview for recruitment into the Lagos State Local Government Service. He expressed his utter surprise that her ethnic origin was never raised or even discussed throughout the process. She is now serving in the directorate cadre of the Lagos State public service. In the state’s education system, a significant number of people of South-East origin also serve as secondary school principals. Lagos has also repeatedly elected state and federal lawmakers of Igbo extraction since the return to democracy in 1999.

The examples go beyond Lagos. In Ekiti State, Governor Biodun Oyebanji appointed four Senior Special Assistants and Special Assistants of Igbo origin to serve in his administration. In Kaduna, Governor Uba Sani appointed Igbo professionals to senior advisory positions. In Osun, Governor Ademola Adeleke appointed Prof. Chinwe Obuaku-Igwe, an Igbo and United Nations-certified climate-change expert, as the Director-General and Special Envoy to the Governor on Climate Change and Renewable Energy, placing her directly under the governor with responsibility for high-level partnerships, climate action and renewable-energy initiatives. This is precisely the sort of thing that should be happening in every Nigerian state.

Take aviation, which is obviously of new interest to Ugwuagbo. When the Ekiti State Government commissioned the Ekiti Airport in Ado-Ekiti, it entered into a partnership with United Nigeria Airlines, owned by an Igbo businessman, Prof. Obiora Okonkwo, to operate commercial flights linking Ado-Ekiti with Lagos and Abuja. A Yoruba state built an airport and its first commercial airline operator was an airline owned by an Igbo businessman. Did anybody in Ekiti scream “Igbonisation”?

The double standard in Ugwuagbo’s argument is as embarrassing as it is insulting to sensibilities. If an Igbo professional is appointed in Lagos, we celebrate it as evidence that Lagos is open and cosmopolitan. If an Igbo-owned company wins a major commercial opportunity in another state, we call it enterprise and success. When an Igbo professional is appointed to the highest echelons of an institution or elected to a sensitive public position in the United States, Canada or Europe, we celebrate it as proof that merit can transcend racial and national boundaries.

But if a Yoruba professional is appointed in Enugu, suddenly the same principle becomes “Yorubanisation”.

The contradiction becomes even more glaring when we consider the Igbo experience as sojourners. The Igbo are among Nigeria’s most geographically dispersed and commercially mobile populations. Our people live, work and invest in virtually every part of the country and around the world. Igbo-owned businesses operate outside the South-East on an enormous scale.

It is therefore difficult to understand why an ethnic group whose economic success has depended so heavily on moving beyond its ancestral homeland would suddenly become threatened by other Nigerians moving into Enugu. Why should the most travelled major ethnic group in Nigeria become xenophobic about who works in Enugu?

There is an even more disturbing dimension to this campaign of ethnic suspicion and antagonism. At a time when Nigerians, including many Igbo, are once again facing the ugly consequences of xenophobic hostility in South Africa, it should concern every responsible Nigerian that anyone would deliberately promote a similar sentiment against fellow Nigerians at home. We know how deeply unsettling such developments are to us, particularly because Igbo constitute a significant part of Nigeria’s commercial and professional community in South Africa. So we should be extremely careful about normalising the same mentality amongst ourselves. If we condemn South Africans for saying Nigerians do not belong in South Africa, we should be extremely careful about saying Yoruba people do not belong in Enugu.

For context, I want to say something directly to Ugwuagbo Emmanuel Chizoba, a local champion of ethnic and primordial bigotry and sectional hatred, and to those who encourage and amplify his xenophobic rhetoric. I welcome the opportunity to work alongside Yoruba colleagues in government. I have never regarded ethnicity as a barrier to competence, friendship or professional excellence. I am a proud product of the University of Lagos, where I was not only a merit-based Unilag Scholar, but also graduated top of my class, winning the Professor Gabriel Olusanya Prize for the Best Graduating Student in History. I studied in a faculty whose teaching staff was predominantly Yoruba. Yet throughout my years at Unilag, I never suffered discrimination from my Yoruba lecturers because I was Igbo. On the contrary, they taught me, challenged me, encouraged me and helped me become who I am today. I also earned a master’s degree from the same institution.

Without mincing words, if, as has been widely alleged in political circles, this campaign of ethnic profiling is connected to interests aligned with the 2027 governorship ambitions of Chief Uche Nnaji, a factional PDP gubernatorial aspirant currently facing multiple criminal charges, and Ugwuagbo is merely serving as one of their political minions and a hack writer, then every lover of inter-ethnic harmony should be deeply concerned. Whatever the political disagreements in Enugu State, no ambition is worth poisoning inter-ethnic relations or encouraging citizens to view fellow Nigerians through the dangerous prism of ethnicity. It is particularly troubling that anyone whose public and political journey benefited from the openness, accommodation and inclusiveness that have long characterised Yoruba society would now be associated with rhetoric capable of breeding suspicion against the very people who exemplified those values. Nnaji was appointed a minister by a president of Yoruba descent, yet it raised no dust. Politics must never descend into ethnic baiting and scapegoating.

History offers painful warnings. Rwanda did not descend into genocide overnight. It began with persistent ethnic labelling, stereotyping and the gradual dehumanisation of fellow citizens until political competition became an ethnic confrontation. Every responsible political actor must therefore reject language that profiles entire people or seeks to make ethnicity itself a ground for public suspicion. Nigeria has paid too high a price for division to permit such dangerous narratives to gain legitimacy in our democratic discourse. No one should ever seek to incite another civil war by exploiting ethnic sentiments merely to advance selfish political interests.

Yet, there is another inconvenient fact the writer seems not to have noticed. Enugu has never been defined by intolerance toward people of other ethnicities. From its emergence as a major administrative, commercial and industrial centre, the city has attracted workers, traders and professionals from different parts of Nigeria and beyond, giving it a distinctly cosmopolitan character. Its history is deeply intertwined with migration, commerce and national integration. As Governor Mbah would say, many of the non-indigenes living in the city for more than 100 years have the placentas of their forefathers buried here in Enugu.

We are talking about Enugu, the land of Mallam Umaru Altine, a Fulani cattle dealer from Sokoto who, having migrated to Enugu and embraced its cosmopolitan political life, became the city’s first elected Mayor in 1952. His emergence, strongly supported by Nnamdi Azikiwe and the NCNC, was a remarkable demonstration of the openness of Enugu’s political culture. A man from faraway Sokoto was accepted and elected to lead the municipal government of the capital of the predominantly Igbo Eastern Region. Altine went on to win re-election in 1956. Enugu has streets and landmarks carrying the names of prominent non-Igbo Nigerians. There are major streets named after Adegoke Adelabu and Obafemi Awolowo, among others. This is part of the history of a Nigerian city that has always been bigger than its ethnic or village boundaries.

Ugwuagbo is perfectly entitled to oppose Governor Peter Mbah or to continue wailing in frustration and despair as his administration exceeds expectations and becomes harder and harder to challenge ahead of the next governorship election. However, the governor’s responsibility is to continue delivering results for the people of Enugu State.