South-east in Self-exile, Insecurity, Sit-at-home Impacting Us, Anyim Cries out

*Asks Igbo leaders to dialogue with agitators to address demands 

*Okonjo-Iweala challenges governors to unite to strengthen the region’s economy 

*Obi of Onitsha calls for restoration of Igbo values

*Mbah seeks regional railway, road projects to boost economy

Tony Icheku, Owerri

Former Senate President and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Anyim Pius Anyim, has stressed that insecurity and sit-at-home orders have negatively impacted the south-east.

This was just as the Director-General of the World Trade Centre, WTC , Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, challenged the governors of the region to eschew bitterness among themselves and collaborate to maximize the potential of the region and build a vibrant economy.

Anyim and Okonjo-Iweala, spoke yesterday at the 2023 South-east economy and security summit in Owerri, the Imo State capital.
Insecurity in the south-east has worsened in recent months with gunmen attacking residents every other week.

Groups like the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) have been agitating for secession from Nigeria over alleged marginalisation.
The former lawmaker called for a rethink of the Biafra agitation and strategies to deal with insecurity in the region.

According to him, the south-east region, going by recent developments, risks losing economic and political relevance in the country, with drastic consequences already being felt by the people of the region after years of insecurity and agitation that have been used as a cover by criminal elements to thrive.
He therefore called on political and traditional leaders in the region to state their positions clearly without politicising same, in a bid to ensure that normalcy returns to the region.

Anyim said “robust” discussions with the agitators would generate lasting solutions to the spate of insecurity plaguing the geopolitical zone.
The former Senate president asked political and traditional leaders in the region to state their positions clearly without politicising same, in a bid to ensure that normalcy returns to the region.

He stated: “In the last four years, every Monday has been declared by some non-state actors as sit-at-home day. The enforcement has been brutal, leading to enormous loss of lives and property.
 “It is estimated that hundreds of lives and hundreds of billions of naira have been lost to the sit-at-home order.”
He noted that the implication of this was being felt by all residents of the region, including successful people, who were often targeted for kidnapping and assassination.

Anyim said: “Life has become very difficult in the South-east and almost every successful person in the South East is in self-exile. If care is not taken, very soon, none of us will come home, no matter the number of security personnel you carry.
“Social and economic activities have been dislocated, businesses have collapsed, no social activity can any longer simply take place in the zone and no new businesses are being attracted. If care is not taken, very soon every means of livelihood in the zone may dry up.”

The former Senate president added, “Heavy arms and ammunition have become instruments of political campaigns, resulting in gross voter apathy. If care is not taken, very soon the South-east will lose national political relevance as votes from the south-east will no longer be of any consequence.
 “Crime and criminality have become widespread in South-east because common criminals have taken advantage of the agitation to advance their evil enterprise.”

According to him, with life increasingly unbearable in the region, there was an urgent need to review the agitation for Biafra and adopt new approaches to life and governance in the region.
He said: “There is a nexus between the high level of insecurity in the south-east and the fact that some criminal elements are unleashing mayhem under the cover of agitation for Biafra.
“We must emphasise that the circumstance that led to Biafra agitation in 1967 is not the same as what is happening today. Therefore, we must endeavour to point out the difference in the present agitation.
“Today, we do not have anything that in any way approximates the situation in 1967. There is absolutely no consensus on the purpose, content, method, and boundaries of today’s Biafra agitation. I therefore call for a rethink by all those involved in this agitation.

“In rethinking the Biafran agitation, we need to honestly articulate what has been the outcomes or impact of the agitation so far.”
He added that the situation could be turned around by providing the youth and those in authority with data on the real losses and consequences of insecurity in the region and a return to the economic systems that made the south-east a model of economic strength and growth in the past.
Anyim, lamented the attention of governments in the region has shifted, with governors paying little to no attention to the development of industrial estates and corridors.

This, he explained, may be responsible for the upsurge in crime.
He also faulted the weakening of the South-east’s social entrepreneurship and apprentice system, which was very popular in the region in the 1970s and 1980s.
He called for the reform and strengthening of the system and the development of the industrial estates to ensure the south-east continues to contribute significantly to global economic development and growth.

The former Senate President called for a new approach to politics as the current trend was worsening insecurity.
Meanwhile, in her presentation, Okonjo-Iweala, maintained that only deliberate approaches by the governors would boost the region’s economy
In her keynote address presented via zoom, at the summit holding in Owerri, the Imo State capital, she noted that the Igbo race had huge human resources could be utilised to advance the economy of the region.

“The Igbo have high human resources. Our people are scattered across the World and are excelling. I call on the South-East governors to convene an investment forum to examine the cause of blockages within the zone and how to address them, eschew bickering and work together.
“I urge the  governors to open discussions with pharmaceutical companies, vaccine producers on how to create a market chain in the zone. It can be achieved since power had been privatised.
“I appeal to the governors to maximise the huge Ndigbo human resource to support professors to develop high quality schools, diaspora doctors to build quality hospitals,” she proposed

The Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe in his remarks tasked Igbos on  the restoration of Igbo values to drive economic goals.
Governor of Enugu State, Dr. Peter Mbah, in his remarks, challenged the south-east to maximise their economy of scale and also pool resources to build critical regional infrastructure like railway and roads to create a common market and boost socio-economic prosperity in the region.
Mbah, canvassed a multi-dimensional approach to tackling insecurity, including a common security command and control centre, inter-agency cooperation, and non-kinetic approaches such as economic transformation, employment generation, moral suasion, among others.
The governor identified transportation and logistics as some of the key enablers needed to transform the south-east economy and thereby reduce poverty, unemployment and consequent crimes.

“How do we ensure that we have a road network that moves across the various cities in Anambra, Abia, Imo, Enugu and Ebonyi?
“How do we build a ring road that connects all the major cities in the South East so that we can seamlessly encourage those who are producing and those who are providing services to distribute their products and services across the different cities of the South East seamlessly?

“These are things we must be intentional about if we are going to deal with unemployment and insecurity in the South East.

“Since we now have railways in the Concurrent List, there is nothing stopping us. So, if we pick one or two projects from this summit that we can say as a people of the South East, we want to make sure that we execute them, I believe we can achieve them and they are going to have a huge spillover effect on our economy and security,” the governor stated.

Among other models, Mbah stressed the need to mobilise Igbo wealth outside the region towards actualising enabling projects.

 “How do we fund such projects? That brings me to this philosophy of ‘Aku Ruo Ulo’, which, in my view, is for us to encourage our kith and kin to bring back their wealth to the south-east.

“Putting a benchmark of about 30 percent and 40 percent of our wealth will go a long way. We have people that are wealthy Igbos.

“So, if we begin to think about how we invest some of those funds in the south-east, it is a way of making sure that we have a huge capital inflow to be able to execute some of these critical projects”, he added.

 He, therefore, tasked the organisers of the summit to employ the best of Igbo brains to curate and prepare the ideas from the summit in an implementable format, assuring that the south-east governors were ready to work together to ensure the full realisation of those ideas.

The Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma and host of the Summit in his welcome address, declared his commitment to the growth of the region.

Also present at the event included Governors Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra state; Alex Otti of Abia state;  and Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi state, who all affirmed their readiness to work for the unity and safety of the region.

The Summit continues today with technical sessions.