Nigeria has to be restructured
‘’The reality is that the country has to be restructured. It is when you restructure that we will begin to see prudent management of resources. The South East/ South South that we are going to have may not be realised without restructuring.
We will have more transparent and accountable governments if the country is not restructured. We have also decided to set up a fund for the South East/South South regions. If we don’t have a fund, we may not have our economic development plan realised. All our people can invest in the South East/South South fund that our people can benefit from. When we are able to raise $1 billion dollars, we can get $20 billion through counterpart funding.
The essence of the fund is that we don’t have to wait for the governors. With the fund, we can construct roads and embark on other developmental projects. The fund will, however, be a catalyst for the development of the region.
On Fulani herdsmen, security
‘’For us, the main thing is where do we think the people of South East South will be in the next 2O years because the problem we normally have is that we only think of today and not tomorrow. But we are saying that we want to know where we will be in the next 20 years. Based on knowing where you want to be, you can start looking at what you have done in the past that you are not doing well.
The issues raised are more of how things are at the moment. In Enugu state there is the issue of Fulani herdsmen, in Imo state there is the issue of having four or more working days, in Abia State, we know that the issue of insecurity in Aba area is tensed, Ebonyi has its issues and Anambra seems to be getting it right especially in the area of security.
Anambra is the most secured state in the South East and South South using any parameter available. There is a lot of insecurity in most of the states in the South South. Even Cross River that used to be peaceful is having some level of militancy and kidnapping. That is the way it is at the moment.
For us as professionals and advocacy group, we want to leverage on things that we can leverage on to make a difference. We had our second Southeast/South Development Forum in April in Pourthacourt and the main purpose was to look at our development agenda and what needs to be done to start doing things immediately. One of the key things we touched upon as a critical enabler was the issue of security and that was when the Niger Avengers had not commenced their activities.
‘’Insecurity is something that we are very much aware of and we need to do what we need to do. We are to push the government in that regard. We have talked to Rear Admiral Okojie and we will go Rivers State to see the governor. There was even a recent incident where a young lawyer was killed. We were touched. Even though we had taken a decision before the incident, we will meet other stakeholders in Port Harcourt to say that enough is enough. We have to ensure that there is security in the both regions if not we can’t have that development that we are looking for.’’
On state governors
At the moment the governors have a lot to do because they are in charge of their states. A governor is virtually the overall manager in every state.
When a governor is not doing well, the state is not doing well and when the governor is doing well, the state tends to do better. We will pride ourselves that we are a group that can always confront the governors and tell them where they are doing wrong and right because most of us are independent unlike what happens in the states where people depend on the governors for their livelihood. We have that luxury of trying to engage them.
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