Veteran Nollywood actor and lawyer, Kenneth Okonkwo, has launched a fresh wave of criticism against President Bola Tinubu’s administration, accusing the president of deliberately sidelining the Southeast region.
Speaking during an interview on Symfoni TV, Okonkwo questioned the loyalty of any Igbo person who supports Tinubu, insisting that the president’s actions and comments since the 2023 elections clearly indicate hostility toward the region.
Okonkwo recalled a statement allegedly made by the president after the polls, which he interpreted as proof of animosity toward the Igbo community.
“After the election, he said, ‘These people (Igbos) came to Lagos when they were 12 years, and they didn’t support us,’” Okonkwo recounted. “So he had the mind to emasculate and finish the Southeast.”
According to him, such rhetoric reflects deep-seated resentment and explains why the region has been marginalized in the current political arrangement.
The actor-politician also pointed to Tinubu’s choice of a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket as a clear sign that the Southeast was never part of the administration’s plans.
“On top of it, he went for a Muslim-Muslim ticket. The Southeast is 99.9% Christian,” he stated. “Whoever is choosing a Muslim-Muslim ticket does not have any intention to have them in the presidency for any reason.”
He argued that this decision further alienated the region and reinforced a perception of political exclusion.
Okonkwo did not mince words when addressing people from the Southeast who support the president, declaring them enemies of their region.
“That is why I’m saying anybody from the Southeast that is supporting Tinubu is an enemy. You are not a Southeast indigene,” he said firmly.
He framed the issue as one of collective political survival, accusing such supporters of enabling their region’s marginalization.
“Politics is about—whoever is trying to finish your people and you’re supporting the person, you are complicit,” he added.
Okonkwo concluded by accusing the Tinubu administration of sidelining the Southeast both ethnically and religiously. “Ethnically, religiously, Tinubu has excluded us from the scheme of things,” he declared, portraying what he sees as a deliberate and systematic exclusion of the region from governance.