“Buhari Let Me Down on Nnamdi Kanu’s Release” – Ngige

Former Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, has disclosed that one of the few times he felt personally disappointed in the late former President Muhammadu Buhari was over the refusal to release detained IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu.

Speaking in an interview, Ngige recounted that in 2022 he facilitated a meeting between Buhari and a delegation of prominent Igbo elders, led by the late First Republic Minister of Aviation, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi. The delegation also included the late Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife, Bishop Onuoha, Chief Ralph Uwazurike, and then Minister of Science and Technology, Chief Ogbonnaya Onu. They appealed to Buhari to order Kanu’s release on compassionate grounds, but the plea was turned down.

“Yes, I was disappointed and I told him,” Ngige said. “We appealed to him, but it didn’t happen. That was why I said Buhari disappointed me on that matter.”

The former Anambra governor, who maintained a close relationship with Buhari until his death, said the late president had a genuine concern for the welfare of Nigerians, particularly the poor, but on the Kanu issue, he refused to grant the request.

Ngige also commended Buhari’s resistance to the devaluation of the naira throughout his eight-year tenure, noting that he fought against it “with all his strength.” He described Buhari’s death as a shock, though he admitted having concerns about his health during the president’s long medical absences in 2016 and 2017. “That’s God’s will,” Ngige said. “But on Nnamdi Kanu, I can say he let me down.”