The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has commended the assent to the South-East Development Commission (SEDC) by President Bola Tinubu, calling it a quantum leap in the zone’s quest for development since the end of the civil war.
In a statement yesterday (Wednesday, July 24) in Enugu, the Enugu State capital, the publicity secretary of the apex Igbo socio-cultural/political organisation, Dr Alex Ogbonnia, said Ohanaeze received the news of the president’s assent to the bill with immense joy and relief.
“This is a quantum leap, a hope renewal and a significant part of a new beginning by President Tinubu,” he stated, disclosing that the President General of the apex-Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, was highly elated by the development and had sent his immense thanks to the president for assenting the bill.
Ogbonnia also commended the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, and the “co-sponsors of the all-important Bill”.
He recalled that during a courtesy visit to the National Assembly by the leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the exceptional quality of Kalu did not go unnoticed.
“His suave, assertive, sagacious and visionary dispositions were very inspiring and a veritable source of hope,” the Ohanaeze scribe enthused.
“More importantly, he commands the respect and confidence of most members of the House of Representatives.
“It needs a mention that the SEDC, which has remained in the pipeline for decades, has come on stream through Kalu and his team.”
He further stated that the commission was expected to manage funds allocated from the Federation Account for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of roads and other infrastructural deficits suffered by the region due to age-long neglect, explaining that the commission would also tackle ecological problems and related environmental challenges that had devastated the Southeast for decades.
“The SEDC will go a long way to assuage the feelings of the Igbo with respect to the 3R sophistry by General Yakubu Gowon in January 1970.
“Gowon had assured the world that there would be three “R”: Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of Igboland as a result of war ravages.
“But 54 years after the war, the Southeast has witnessed the direct opposite of the 3R, even in exponential proportion.
“South-East has the least number of Local Government Areas, the least number of states, the least in political appointments, the least members in the House of Representatives, the least in the Senate and, of course, the worst in infrastructure,” he stressed.
“With these structures, the Federal Government enlarged the coast of other geopolitical zones, leaving the South-East in the cold.
“No one should, therefore, look elsewhere in the search for the persistent youth restiveness and secessionist agitations in the region.
“Furthermore, the South-East Governors, led by the Governor of Imo, Sen. Hope Uzodinma, will leverage the opportunity created by the commission to anchor programmes that will fully harness and promote industrial, agricultural and tourism in the region.
“Others are energy, commercial and investment potentials in the zone as well as helping to create the much desired centrally coordinated security architecture in the zone and more.”
