2015: Give us a ministerial slot and we will vote for you – Tivs tell Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan might not
get the support of the Tiv ethnic group of
Benue State if there’s no assurance that
they would get a ministerial slot in his
cabinet next year.
This condition was given on behalf of the
community by one of its prominent
elders, Chief Iorapuu Amile.
Amile told Punch in Gboko, Gboko Local
Government Area, the traditional home of
the Tiv that the only way of getting the
support of the Tivs was for Jonathan to
create a slot for their people in his
cabinet.
He said, “The President (Jonathan) is our
brother by extension since he is also a
minority and the only condition that will
make us vote for him in the next general
election is for him to promise us a slot for
a senior ministerial appointment.
“This, I believe, is not too much for him
considering the numerical strength of the
Tiv people as adjudged to be the fourth
largest ethnic group in the country.”
The politician, who was the chairman of
the defunct National Republican
Convention, Gboko LG chapter, noted that
it was not right for the Tiv not to have
had a senior minister throughout
Jonathan’s first tenure.
He said, “Let the President himself see to
it that there has been a high level of
political and economic injustices meted on
our people throughout his first tenure and
we are simply saying there must be a
change for us to be with him.”
Amile declared that the marginalisation of
his people had reached an “unbearable
and unacceptable stage”.