Tinubu, Mbah, APC and the South-East: A New Era

For 24 years, from 1999 to 2023, Ndi Igbo supported the PDP with our votes, loyalty, and sacrifices. In return, we got neglect disguised as friendship. We were like a bride that never made it to the altar. Five presidential tickets, no Igbo vice-presidential slots, no Igbo Senate Presidency since Evan Enwerem and Adolphus Wabara, and the South-East became a place of broken promises.

The PDP used our votes to gain power in Abuja while our roads became dangerous and our youths became statistics. That time is over. The question for us in 2027 is not about party; it is about our future.

And here is what our children must remember: President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been kind to Ndi Igbo even though most of us did not vote for him in 2023. In many parts of the South-East, he got less than 10% of the votes.

Any angry politician could have punished us. Any leader with a grudge could have said, “you rejected me, so I reject you.” Tinubu did the opposite. He chose to build the nation over seeking revenge. He saw beyond the votes and recognized a people who need development. If a man can show love when you did not vote for him, imagine what he will do when you support him in 2027. That is what a true leader does.

President Tinubu did what no President has done since 1999: he treated the South-East as partners in security and power, not as suspects. In the military, the top command now includes Igbo leaders.

Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ikechukwu Ogalla from Enugu State became Chief of Naval Staff; this is the first time an Igbo person has held that position in the Fourth Republic. When Ogalla retired, the President appointed another son from Enugu, Air Vice Marshal Sunday Kelvin Aneke, as the Chief of Air Staff.

Two service chiefs from the same state, from the same South-East. These are not just symbolic positions. Tinubu placed his trust in the Igbo at a time when others doubted us. This is a political statement that history will remember.

Then came the South-East Development Commission (SEDC); something our fathers dreamed of since the end of the Civil War. From 1970 to 2023, every President promised to rebuild, but none delivered. Tinubu signed the SEDC into law in 2024. For the first time, the South-East has its own development agency, with funding and a mandate to rebuild our region like the NDDC did for the South-South. This one act is worth more than 24 years of loyalty to the PDP.

For the first time in our democratic history, an Igbo person, Dave Umahi, holds the crucial Ministry of Works; the ministry that decides the economic fate of each region. And he has delivered.

The Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway, left untouched for 20 years, is now nearly finished. The Enugu-Onitsha Expressway, the access roads for the 2nd Niger Bridge, the Enugu-Abakaliki route, the Owerri-Umuahia, and the Aba-Ikot Ekpene roads; all are moving faster than we ever saw under the PDP. This is not just promises. This is real progress.

Look at Enugu and see the benefits of working together. When Governor Peter Mbah boldly aligned Enugu with the centre by joining the APC, some said he betrayed us. Today, the results speak for themselves. 268 Smart Green Schools; one in every ward, built in just three years. No Governor in the South-East has ever achieved this.

Enugu Talent City and the AI Institute from the NCC Digital Industrial Park are leased for 15 years. Enugu Air is our own airline. The International Conference Centre is completed. The 300-bed Enugu International Hospital is ready. Water now flows in Enugu after 20 years of dryness. This is what happens when a capable Governor works with Abuja instead of against it.

The economic benefits are even greater. Under Tinubu, the South-East is reconnecting to the national economy. The $1 trillion economy agenda is not just for Lagos; it is for us too. With SEDC, the new coastal highway leading to Eastern ports, the revival of the Eastern rail line, and renewed focus on Enugu coal, Anambra gas, Ebonyi salt, and Abia industries, the President is setting Ndi Igbo up to be the industrial leader of Africa again, just like before the war. Continuity means our traders in Onitsha, Nnewi, Aba, and Ogbete will have power, roads, and ports to reach the world without leaving home.

Let’s face the hard truth: isolation has never helped us. Political conflicts have never built a single road. When we voted 95% against the centre, we got 5% of the budget. Politics is about give and take. The Yoruba, our brothers in the South-West, are in power now. They understand this.

If in 2027, the South-East gives Tinubu a strong bloc vote; not 5%, not 15%, but a united vote, we lay the groundwork for the Presidency to come to the South-East in 2039. This is how power rotates in Nigeria. You do not get power by shouting from the sidelines. You earn it by building connections while your brother is in power.

The PDP gave us slogans. The APC under Tinubu and Mbah gives us schools, roads, commissions, appointments, and respect. To vote for anything else in 2027 is to choose to go back to the past; to pick anger over wisdom, memory over future, and isolation over influence. Ndi Igbo are not people of self-pity. We are enterprising, strategic, and visionary. Our fathers traded across Africa because they knew the value of alliances.

So, let 2027 be the year Ndi Igbo choose stability over chaos, and the future over old grudges. Re-elect President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Re-elect Governor Peter Mbah. Vote APC at all levels; Senate, House of Representatives, State Assembly. Not because the APC is perfect, but because for the first time since 1999, the South-East is finally in the room where Nigeria’s future is shaped, even though we did not vote for the man in that room. Let us not leave that room. Let us stay, build, and claim our rightful place.

Ndi Igbo, the time is now.