News
As South-East Progressively Aligns With The Tinubu Administration
As South-East Progressively Aligns With The Tinubu Administration
By Stanley Nkwocha
The political ground is shifting beneath Nigeria’s most historically assertive and politically independent region: the South-East. Since 2015, when the All Progressive Congress ( APC) took over governance the region became the home of opposition politics and often the dissenting conscience of the federation. However, it is rife to state that the region is now undergoing a profound realignment.
What seemed impossible a decade ago is now the new political reality, with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), once hegemonic across the entire South-East geopolitical zone, being completely uprooted from all five states. In its stead, the All Progressives Congress (APC) is progressively emerging as the new centre of gravity.
This transformation did not happen overnight. It is the outcome of long-term structural grievances, shifting political incentives, generational changes in Igbo political strategy, and the deliberate alignment of the region with the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The South-East Vision 2050 Regional Stakeholders’ Forum in Enugu last Wednesday, which was organised by the South-East Development Commission (SEDC) and attended by the governors from the region, federal representatives, regional elites, and diaspora technocrats, provided the clearest symbolic marker yet that a new chapter is unfolding. The speech delivered by Vice President Kashim Shettima, and the reception it received, captured the undeniable truth that the South-East is no longer positioning itself outside the national structure. The region is seeking to co-author its future within it.
The region’s movement away from the PDP began slowly but decisively. The first major rupture came in Ebonyi in 2020, when Governor David Umahi defected to the APC, citing the PDP’s unwillingness to treat the South-East with fairness and its persistent refusal to consider a presidential ticket for the region. His argument resonated with an electorate that had long supported the PDP but gained little in exchange.
Far from being a mere personal political manoeuvre, Umahi’s decision exposed the simmering disenchantment many Igbo elites felt toward a party they believed had taken their loyalty for granted. His successor’s eventual victory under the APC in 2023 confirmed the permanence of the shift and, in hindsight, marked the beginning of the end of PDP dominance.
Earlier that year, the Supreme Court’s decision that replaced Emeka Ihedioha (PDP) with Senator Hope Uzodimma (APC) reconfigured Imo overnight. Since then, Uzodinma has become one of the most strategic political actors in the region, using his office to build the APC’s regional infrastructure and eventually chairing the Progressive Governors’ Forum.
But the most symbolic collapse of the PDP occurred in Enugu in 2025. For twenty-six years, Enugu had remained a PDP citadel and a state where the party had never lost a governorship election and where its political machinery was so deeply entrenched that change seemed unimaginable.
Yet when Governor Peter Mbah defected to the APC alongside nearly all members of the State House of Assembly and over two hundred local government officials, the PDP’s fate was sealed. His explanation that it was impossible for Enugu to remain in opposition and still hope to secure meaningful development echoed a sentiment increasingly shared across the region, which is that the politics of perceived regional isolation had become too costly to sustain.
Elsewhere, the transition of Abia State to Labour Party control under Alex Otti in 2023 and Anambra’s steadfast allegiance to APGA meant that by early 2026, the PDP no longer held a single governorship in the South-East. A party that once thrived on the emotional loyalty and historic grievances of Ndi Igbo has found itself displaced not by a single alternative, but by a coalition of political forces, in particular, the APC, that recognised the region’s desire for relevance and inclusion.
To understand why this shift occurred, one must consider the deep historical backdrop. The South-East’s political identity has long been shaped by post-war marginalisation, structural inequities, and the undercurrents of resentment that followed the federal policies of the 1970s, including the economic dislocations that left many Igbo communities struggling to rebuild.
This opinionated sense of betrayal fed seamlessly into the Peter Obi wave that swept through the region in the 2023 general elections. For decades, the PDP had enjoyed a grassroots monopoly in the South-East, but the emotional resonance of Obi’s candidacy broke that monopoly in a single election cycle. People who had voted for the PDP generation after generation now shifted their allegiance to the Labour Party. Although the movement did not translate into gubernatorial wins for the LP across all states, it decisively fractured the PDP’s foundational base. The heart had left the party, even if the structures remained. By the time Mbah defected in 2025, there was no ideological resistance left strong enough to stop him.
Yet the story of the South-East’s alignment with the Tinubu administration is not simply a reaction to PDP failures. The movement is equally shaped by what the APC-led federal government has done to court the region at a moment when Nigeria is experiencing meaningful macroeconomic repositioning. Under President Tinubu, the economy has witnessed a notable shift in direction.
International institutions such as the World Bank have upgraded Nigeria’s growth prospects, estimating GDP expansion at 4.4% for 2026—far higher than global projections. Inflation, once spiralling at crisis levels, has begun a steady decline, dropping from over 21% in 2025 to a projected 12.94% this year, while foreign reserves and FX turnover have surged to their strongest levels in recent years. These indicators have strengthened the region’s perception that federal economic stewardship is stabilising, making political alignment more attractive.
This is especially relevant for the South-East because the region thrives on private enterprise, trade, manufacturing, and diaspora remittances, which are, in fact, sectors that benefit from macroeconomic stability.
At the same time, the government’s push for refining independence, which has allowed Nigeria to transition into a net exporter of refined petroleum products, has reduced pressure on the naira, bolstered reserves, and improved trade balances. These economic shifts are not abstract technocratic achievements; they are tangible developments that resonate with the everyday realities of traders in Onitsha, importers in Aba, manufacturers in Nnewi, and transport entrepreneurs across the region.
But perhaps the most profound factor in the South-East’s realignment is President Tinubu’s deliberate political strategy toward the region. Rather than relying on rhetoric or symbolic gestures, the administration has taken concrete steps that respond to longstanding Igbo demands for structural economic inclusion.
One such step is the establishment of the South East Investment Company Limited, a federally supported vehicle designed to mobilise diaspora capital, attract development finance, and channel private investment into the region’s infrastructure and industrial base. This mirrors the calls within academic and policy circles for a modern equivalent of the defunct Eastern Nigeria Development Corporation, which was once responsible for some of the region’s most impressive economic achievements in the pre-war era. President Tinubu’s approval of this initiative signalled not only recognition of the region’s unique entrepreneurial strengths but also a willingness to anchor long-term federal policy on the region’s aspirations for economic integration.
This strategic engagement was on full display at the Enugu Vision 2050 Summit. Vice President Shettima’s remarks, emphasising that the South-East is a central pillar of Nigeria’s economic future, carried special significance in a region where historical memory of exclusion is deep and often painful. His acknowledgement of the region’s global diaspora networks, its tradition of innovation under pressure, and its role in shaping Nigeria’s economic imagination tapped into a broader intellectual history that sees the Igbo as a migrant race, resilient, adaptive, and global in orientation.
The audience’s response to VP Shettima’s speech was not merely polite; it was markedly receptive. It reflected a regional elite increasingly interested in the language of development, investment, and long-term planning, and less committed to the confrontational political posture of previous decades. The symbolism of the moment was unmistakable: the federal government came not as a paternalistic overseer or political conqueror, but as an engaged partner offering a platform for integration into Nigeria’s long-term economic framework. This shift is not driven by naivety. The South-East’s political class understands that genuine alignment with the centre must translate into tangible gains.
In effect, the South-East is recalibrating; not abandoning its identity, grievances, or aspirations, but repositioning itself within the Nigerian power structure to negotiate those aspirations more effectively. The PDP’s downfall is merely the political expression of this deeper transformation. What is emerging is not blind loyalty to the APC but a regional strategy rooted in the understanding that power must be engaged directly if economic and political development is to be massively achieved.
The Vision 2050 Summit has, perhaps, demonstrated that the South-East has looked beyond its grievances. The region is not merely aligning with the President Tinubu administration out of weakness or opportunism. It is doing so out of a recognition that political relevance and economic transformation are best secured not from the margins but from the centre of national decision-making.
Nkwocha is the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communications to The President (Office of the Vice President) and wrote in from Abuja.
As South-East Progressively Aligns With The Tinubu Administration
Nigerian Children in Crisis ‘Fiscally Invisible’ as New Report Exposes Funding Failure
…Study warns millions of children caught in conflict, displacement and hunger are being overlooked in government budgets; journalists launch accountability network to push for reforms
By: Michael Mike
Nigeria’s youngest and most vulnerable children are being failed by a financing system that does not even recognise them in public budgets, a new report has warned, raising fresh concerns over the country’s worsening humanitarian and human capital crisis.
The report, Financing Early Childhood Development in Crisis (ECDiC) in Nigeria: From Fiscal Invisibility to Child-Level Results, released in Abuja on Wednesday by the Moving Minds Alliance (MMA) in partnership with Whole Child Advisors, paints a grim picture of how children aged between zero and eight years living in conflict, displacement, climate emergencies and poverty are largely excluded from government financing despite overwhelming evidence that the early years determine a child’s lifelong prospects.
According to the report, Nigeria’s Human Capital Index stands at just 0.36, meaning a child born today is expected to achieve only 36 per cent of his or her productive potential because of poor health, inadequate nutrition and weak learning outcomes.
The findings come at a time when Nigeria continues to grapple with one of Africa’s largest humanitarian emergencies. Insurgency in the North-East, widespread banditry and communal violence across the North-West and North-Central, alongside climate-induced disasters and economic hardship, have displaced millions of people and disrupted access to healthcare, nutrition and education for children.
The report estimates that 4.9 million children require life-saving humanitarian assistance, while 3.6 million people were forcibly displaced in 2025. It also notes that about 31 million Nigerian children are under the age of five, with between 33.8 and 40 per cent suffering from stunting, an indication of chronic malnutrition that permanently affects brain development and future productivity.
It further revealed that severe acute malnutrition cases surged to about 1.8 million children in 2025, representing a 69 per cent increase over previous estimates, while Nigeria’s under-five mortality remains among the highest globally at 105 deaths per 1,000 live births.
Despite these alarming indicators, the report found that Early Childhood Development in Crisis (ECDiC) has no dedicated budget line in either federal or state budgets, effectively rendering vulnerable children “fiscally invisible.”
The analysis identified five major weaknesses responsible for the financing gap: the absence of dedicated budget lines, poor implementation of approved budgets, fragmented funding channels, recurrent expenditure that crowds out essential child services, and an uneven distribution of humanitarian resources heavily concentrated in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, leaving crisis-hit communities in the North-West and North-Central with inadequate support.
The report noted that less than five per cent of education spending benefits early childhood or emergency learning programmes.
It concluded that the existing financing framework prioritises institutions rather than children’s actual needs.
“The system is built to fund structures, not children,” the report stated, warning that Nigeria cannot realise its human capital ambitions without creating a financing architecture capable of delivering predictable resources directly to frontline services supporting young children in emergencies.
To reverse the trend, the report recommended seven urgent reforms, including establishing a federal policy framework for Early Childhood Development in Crisis, introducing dedicated budget tags across federal and state budgets, protecting releases of funds, simplifying financing channels, expanding results-based financing tied to measurable child outcomes, redistributing resources according to vulnerability rather than geography, and creating a blended investment mechanism involving government, humanitarian agencies and philanthropic organisations.
Speaking at the launch, the Nigeria Early Childhood Development in Crisis Coalition Coordinator, Arome Agenyi, stressed that the future of millions of Nigerian children depends on decisions taken today.
He said: “Behind every successful adult is an early childhood story. The question is not whether children are developing; they are. The question is whether they are developing to their full potential. In this regard, the stories journalists choose to tell today can shape the policies, investments, and public actions that determine the future of millions of Nigerian children, especially those in crisis contexts across Nigeria.”
As part of efforts to sustain public attention on the issue, the Moving Minds Alliance also inaugurated the Nigerian chapter of the Reporters for Early Childhood in Humanitarian Crisis (REACH) Network, bringing together journalists committed to evidence-based reporting on children affected by humanitarian emergencies.
Global Co-Chair of the REACH Network, Mojeed Alabi, said children who are invisible in government budgets often become invisible in politics and public discourse.
“When children living through conflict, displacement, climate shocks and economic hardship become fiscally invisible, they also risk becoming politically invisible,” Alabi said.
“The launch of the REACH Network in Nigeria is a commitment by journalists to change that narrative. Through sustained, evidence-based reporting, we will amplify the voices of the youngest and most vulnerable children, hold leaders accountable for their commitments, and ensure that early childhood development remains at the heart of public policy and national development.”
Also speaking, Interim Director and Co-Chair of the Moving Minds Alliance, Dr. Katie Murphy, described the report as the clearest roadmap yet for reforming child financing in Nigeria.
“This new report gives us something we haven’t had before: a clear picture of where Nigeria’s investment in its youngest children in crisis is falling short, and exactly what it will take to close that gap,” she said.
Murphy added that the planned Act for Early Years Financing Summit in 2027 would seek commitments from governments, donors and development partners to move from fragmented financing to a system that delivers resources directly to children.
The coalition hopes that by 2028, both federal and state governments will have introduced dedicated ECDiC budget tags, released at least 70 per cent of allocated funds annually, and achieved measurable improvements in child development outcomes across local government areas.
For child development advocates, the report is more than a financial audit; it is a warning that unless Nigeria changes how it invests in children during their earliest years, particularly those growing up amid conflict and displacement, the country risks entrenching poverty, inequality and lost human potential for generations.
Nigerian Children in Crisis ‘Fiscally Invisible’ as New Report Exposes Funding Failure
Military
Establishment of Army Depot in South-East Reflects FG’s Commitment to National Unity, Security and inclusiveness– COAS
Establishment of Army Depot in South-East Reflects FG’s Commitment to National Unity, Security and inclusiveness– COAS
By Zagazola Makama
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.-Gen. Waidi Shaibu, has said that the establishment of the Depot Nigerian Army in Amasiri-Edda, in Ebonyi State is a clear demonstration of the Federal Government’s commitment to national security, inclusiveness, national integration and balanced development across the country.
Shaibu made the remarks while addressing dignitaries during activities marking the inauguration of the newly established military training institution in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State.
According to the Army Chief, the depot, which is the first primary recruit training institution of the Nigerian Army in the South-East geopolitical zone, represents a strategic investment by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration in strengthening national security and promoting equitable distribution of critical national institutions.
“The establishment of this depot reflects the Federal Government’s commitment to national security, inclusiveness, national integration and balanced development,” Shaibu said.
He described the inauguration of the facility as a landmark achievement in the ongoing transformation of the Nigerian Army under President Tinubu, noting that it would significantly enhance the Army’s capacity to train professionally competent and combat-ready soldiers.
The COAS disclosed that the first set of recruits trained at the new depot would graduate the following day, describing the event as a historic milestone not only for the institution but also for the evolution of recruit training within the Nigerian Army.
“Their graduation will not only mark the successful completion of basic military training but will also usher in a new chapter in the evolution of recruit training in the Nigerian Army,” he said.
Shaibu explained that since its establishment, the depot had steadily developed into a modern recruit training institution designed to produce disciplined, professional and capable soldiers in line with the Nigerian Army’s transformation agenda and long-term strategic vision.
He said the facility forms part of the Federal Government’s broader efforts to modernise the Armed Forces and expand military capacity to address Nigeria’s dynamic security environment.
The Army Chief expressed profound appreciation to President Tinubu for approving the establishment of the institution and providing the necessary resources for its successful implementation.
He noted that the new depot would not only improve military training capacity but also strengthen the strategic importance of the South-East within Nigeria’s security architecture.
According to him, locating the institution in Ebonyi State underscores the government’s determination to ensure that all parts of the country benefit from national development initiatives while fostering greater national cohesion.
Shaibu also commended Ebonyi State Governor Francis Nwifuru for his unwavering support towards the establishment and successful take-off of the depot.
He said the state government provided accommodation, logistics and other essential support that contributed significantly to the successful training of the pioneer batch of recruits.
“From facilitating the historic groundbreaking ceremony to providing sustained support for this institution, the governor has demonstrated remarkable patriotism and an enduring commitment to national security,” he said.
The COAS further described the Government and people of Ebonyi State, as well as the entire South-East, as indispensable partners in the establishment and growth of the institution.
He also acknowledged the contributions of traditional rulers, political leaders, religious leaders, community leaders and residents of the state for creating a peaceful and conducive environment for the depot to thrive.
Shaibu reaffirmed the Nigerian Army’s commitment to deepening its partnership with host communities and stakeholders, stressing that sustained collaboration between the military and the people remains critical to enhancing national security and maintaining lasting peace.
According to him, the state’s sustained support demonstrates a strong commitment to national security, peace and development.
The Army Chief further commended traditional rulers, community leaders, members of the State Development Committee, political and religious leaders, and other stakeholders for fostering a peaceful environment that enabled the successful establishment of the Depot.
He reaffirmed that the Nigerian Army values its partnership with the state and pledged to continue strengthening collaboration in pursuit of improved security and national development.
The COAS also paid tribute to distinguished retired senior military officers from the region for their contributions to the growth and development of the Nigerian Army.
The establishment of the Depot Nigerian Army in Ebonyi is widely regarded as one of the landmark military infrastructure projects under the Tinubu administration, aimed at expanding recruit training capacity while promoting inclusiveness, national integration and balanced development across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones.
Establishment of Army Depot in South-East Reflects FG’s Commitment to National Unity, Security and inclusiveness– COAS
Troops, CJTF Arrest Suspected ISWAP Informant Accused of Identifying Kidnap Targets in Borno
By Zagazola Makama
Operatives of the Military Intelligence Brigade (MIB) under Sector 3 of Operation HADIN KAI, working in collaboration with the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), have arrested a suspected Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) informant in Monguno Local Government Area of Borno State.
Intelligence sources told Zagazola Makama that the suspect, identified as Isa Janyu, 30, was tracked and apprehended at about 7:20 p.m. on July 4 during a targeted intelligence-led operation at Kasuwan Shanu in Monguno town.
According to the sources, items recovered from the suspect included a Tecno mobile phone, a knife, a comb, a mirror, and ₦10,000 in cash.
Preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect is a native of Arianna Mai Massallachi Village in Kukawa Local Government Area and allegedly specialised in identifying wealthy residents for ISWAP elements to facilitate kidnapping operations for ransom.
The suspect is currently in the custody of the Headquarters Sector 3 Military Intelligence Brigade for further investigation and other necessary actions.
Military sources said the arrest was part of ongoing intelligence-driven operations aimed at dismantling terrorist support networks and disrupting the activities of informants providing critical information to insurgent groups in the North-East.
They added that although the general security situation across the theatre remains relatively calm, it is still unpredictable, with troops maintaining a high level of operational readiness and sustained offensive pressure against terrorist elements.
Troops, CJTF Arrest Suspected ISWAP Informant Accused of Identifying Kidnap Targets in Borno
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