Looking at the happenings in the country today, isn’t it time for South- East regional development so that Ndigbo will cease to be victims of aggression?
Yes, there is an adage in Igbo that says: “a stubborn fly normally follows the corpse to the grave”. Taking you back to the 60s, when the civil war was fought, the Igbos were massacred. Nigerians in many parts of the country rejected Ndigbo. There was a massive return of Ndigbo from all parts of the country to Igboland.
To me, that should have been a very strong warning to Ndigbo that it’s time to stay back and develop your area. You cannot sojourn in another man’s land and hope that the spirit will go back to develop your home land, no.
The Igbos should have listened to Ojukwu; Nigerians should have listened to Ojukwu. During the time of Ikemba and what made him an Igbo leader, he came to salvage and became the father and protector to Ndigbo. In 1960, corpses of Ndigbo were parcelled in trucks, trailers back to Igboland. Forty two years thereafter, Ndigbo are still being slaughtered and their corpses being brought back to their homes, villages and towns. To me, it’s a high time Ndigbo have a rethink. It is better for you to be at home and die than for you to be in a foreign country and you are rejected as if you are a slave. Today, the contributions of Ndigbo all over the country have developed many areas of this country, yet Ndigbo are not accepted in many areas of this country. Well, since Ndigbo prefer to live in another man’s land to develop it than their own land, so whatever they are getting, let nobody weep.
The vision of our great leader, Nnamdi Azikiwe, he believed in one Nigeria, no matter your geographical location in this country. But do other people believe in that? Is that vision still stand today? Nigeria is on the brink and the Igbos are the ones that normally suffer whenever there is crisis; their businesses and homes are being destroyed. To worsen the whole matter, the economy of their own villages is starving and is nothing to write home about. I believe that if all of us believe in one Nigeria. Until the federating unit known as Nigeria agree on what is meant by a federation and spell it out clearly, I should advise Ndigbo wherever they may be to start developing their area against tomorrow for the future of their children, because what is happening today, if it continues I don’t think it will be palatable for the late generation of the Ndigbo to reside at their home community.
If we must achieve this dream, what role do you expect South-East leaders to play?
Leaders there should emulate what Ojukwu did. They should give their people a sense of belonging. Today’s politics in Nigeria, especially in the South-East, politicians think towards their personal aggrandisement rather than the generality of the people. So, they should approach the town unions, all Igbo organisations, preach to them. If an Igbo man has one million to invest in business, he should start investing at least three quarter of that money in his own area and the balance in other areas, so that when anything happens he will not lose it all.
The leaders themselves in the South-East should also start laying the foundation for economic development of South-East. Once South-East is developed softly, the inhabitants are given a sense of belonging. Tt will be unpalatable for an average South-Easterner to remain in his own town than going outside the boundary of his state to suffer. Our politicians who are in government, representing South-East zones in the National Assembly should ensure that they attract more fund in terms of allocation. When you look at the lopesided issue of allocation in this country today, you see that the South-East is heavily short changed. In a survey done by Aka Ikenga submitted to the government, it was discovered that in the past seven years, federal allocation to South-East is just 2.1% of the national allocation. You weight that against 37.6% given to Abuja. So you can see the lopesided imbalance in federal allocation. South-East and North-East are the ones cheated in the country. That is why it’s discovered that criminality and crime are more in the South-East and North-East than any part of the country because the federal allocation to those regions is very low and that cannot build up an economy, especially South-East. And that is the reason why sons and daughters from that area leave their towns for other areas where the economy is better.
So, the issue of imbalance must be pursued by South-East leaders and also the political elites of South-East. Once the economy is good, the people will tend more to stay home than to drift to other areas where the economy is more buoyant. So the leaders have got a lot to do.
The South-East and the National Summit…
When you look at the political representation, for instance, the creation of states is against the economic interest of South-East because there is no zone that has five states except South-East.
There are some zones alone almost every street is a local government. South-East has been short changed in terms of political division in the country. How many local governments do you have in South-East? It’s too insignificant compared to other regions. How many states do you have in South-East? Only five while others have seven or eight states. Now Federal allocation goes to the states based on the number of states in that region, the same thing to local governments. Therefore, the more local government areas you have, the more federal revenue you attract. So, South-East is attracting quite insignificant amount of money for its own development and people, both at state and local government levels and as such development is stunted. And because development is stunted, the youths there become jobless. Yes, it is said that, “An idle man is a devil’s workshop”. Jobless youths now resort to crime such as kidnapping, armed robbery etc. to make ends meat. In doing that they succeed in driving away what would brings investors into that economy. Nobody would like to invest in an area where he will be kidnapped or killed. It’s a very bad situation.
How to help Boko Haram victims.
The only thing is that once you are a refugee in your own place, you have become the government property and government should do more to settle those who are returning and again most of our big shots in government should equally intercede on behalf of their people. For instance, the governor of CBN who is from the north, when Boko Haram attacked his area, he doled out some millions to resettle his people.
After the civil war, the Federal Government compensated the war veterans who fought for the Nigerian side, but till today Biafran war veterans are still struggling. Many of them are dying. What has the government done for them both at state and federal levels? Nothing has been done for them and they are still agitating.
Yes, an Igbo man is well organised, is fond of attending meetings; we have leadership, but those at the leadership level are they looking for what they can get or are they really representing their own people to ensure that their people get what accrues to them?.
Leadership must ask themselves a question, are they doing enough to alleviate the sufferings of their own people? I can hear some of them telling them not to panic, go back to your base. How can you sit in your palace under air conditioners and everything, protected by soldiers, mobile police in your compound, then you are asking people whose relations, friends and well wishers had been slaughtered, who saw blood and corpses, and you now tell them to go back there? What type of advice is that? I don’t accept that type of advice.
via Vanguard
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