By Joe EzumaAsst. Editor (South-South)
The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, was in Port Harcourt on Thursday, April 28, 2016, to officially open the second South-East South South Development Forum organized by the South- East South-South Professionals of Nigeria (SESSPN).
The Forum with the theme: ”A New Roadmap For The Regional Integration And Economic Development Of the South-East and South-South”, was part of series of activities by SESSPN to repudiate the zones’ marginalization and decapitation from the political economy of the nation despite their resourcefulness.
It was also a bold move by the zones to reintegrate culturally, socially, economically and politically to shove disarticulation of decades and to achieve development.
The vice president’s soothing words at the Presidential Hotel venue of the forum, though reassuring and light heartening, was taken with a pinch of salt by many at the forum.
Osinbajo who was represented at the forum by Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, Senior Special Adviser, Commerce and Industry in his office, had advised the people of the two zones to work coherently and
collectively for them to leverage on the enormous endowments of the area for their collective development.
Osinbajo pointed out that the Federal Government recognises economic mission of the zones as a road map to growth and development of the nation. He assured that the Federal Government would remove all impediments to busessmen in the zone by the application of proper fiscal policies.
”It is clearly in line with the Federal Government economic philosophy and we look forward to a negotiation between the private and public sectors ”, he said, stressing that the SESSPN Economic integration agenda were relevant in modern day economic development planning such as there are in Europeon Union and South African Economic Union.
For those at the gathering , these were good talks , but for those who have been witnesses to systematic denial and frustration of development through harsh government policies over the years, they are not carried away.
In his address, Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, the chairman of the Organizing Committee of the event, said that if the vision of the forum was imbibed, would mark a turning point in the quest to rapidly transform ”this most blessed but disadvantaged land of ours into a real land of great delight”.
”The forum is simply to support the effort to rescue our motherland by snatching victory from the jaws of defeat in terms of her low developmental strides”, he said , nothing that the two zones are beasts of a state, akin to the condition of Jerusalem in Nehemiah’s time.
”In a nutshell, we have come to bury all our old hatchets and in their place, project a new roadmap for the regional integration and economic development of our mother land, the South-East and South-South regions. Let us rebuild the walls of Jerusalem now and rid ourselves of all these disgrace”, he said.
To most participants at the forum, including SESSPN President, Chief Emeka Ugwu- Oju, had an eye on the industrial revolution that would transform the state in the next 20 years.
SESSPN President, Chief Emeka Ugwu -Oju, said that the forum was a wake -up call for the two zones, adding, ”we are here today because we believe the time has finally come to take our destiny in our hands and rewrite the history of this part of our nation.
”This, we can do by redirecting the economic development trajectory of these two zones away from its present ridiculous and sorry state, back to its pre-oil era of focus and dynamism”, Ugwu-Oju advised, noting that the agenda was the zones own version of industrial revolution with information technology as the key driver.
He however warned the people of the two zones to avoid frivolity and lip service in the pursuit of the dream. ”I must add that for this vision to be realized, it requires strong political will and leadership, especially from our political leaders. Partisanship has to take back seat to common interest of the region… ”
In his remarks, Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, commended SESSPN for its Eastern Economic reintegration and development agenda, noting that the South-East and South-South were bounded to grow together to fast-track their economic growth.
”We have and inheritance and we salvage it, and so the public and private sector in the zones must work in synergy to bring back our economic prosperity ”, he said.
Wike, who was represented by the state Secretary to the Government (SSG), Mr. Kenneth Kobani, lamented: ”The biggest challenge to development in Rivers State is politics. The rate at which Abuja changes security personnel posted to the state does not make room for stability in building security architecture. We must separate security from politics. We must not pander to narrow political interest.”
One of speakers at the forum, Ambassador Joe Keshi, while commending SESSPN, Chief Ugwu-Oju and Ohuabunwa for organising the forum and keeping the dream of South-East SouthSouth collaboration alive, regretted that at the event which was supposed to be a dialogue between the businessmen and governments of the zone, the later did not show effective presence.
”out of 11 governors, only (before Abia and Imo reps arrived) only two sent representatives. ”If the government is not at the negotiating table, who do you negotiate with ”, he queried.
Keshi urged SESSPN to begin to look benyond the governments of the region to implement the content of the body’s working documents just as he urged change of attitude from the governments to issues of development of the two zones.