South East politicians seem bent on delivering the zone to their parties in next week’s election without express commitment by the presidential candidates on the needs of the people, Senior Correspondent, OKEY MADUFORO, notes.
With the presidential and National Assembly elections expected to take place this Saturday, the sad reality, perhaps, becomes more intriguing.
In the face of the helpless situation, the people have literally resigned to fate, hoping to be emancipated from their sorry state when one of their own would become the president of Nigeria. Ironically, that dream has remained largely unrealised, as the people have always found themselves at the mercy of other geo-political zones.
The zone is currently divided between supporting President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and General Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC). While the horse-trading lasts, South East leaders are literally up in arms against one another.
As the obvious discord subsists, there have been fears of history repeating itself after the general elections when the race could again be consigned to the piteous situation of the proverbial whipping boy of the nation’s politics.
The fear is hardly allayed by the perceived tendency of some of the leaders from the zone pursuing selfish interest at the expense of their people.
This apparent leadership failure, perhaps, becomes more pronounced in the systematic stagnation of the economy of the South East on account of policies and programmes of successive federal authorities that tend to be skewed against the area.
Power and ruins of industrialisation
Former chairman of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Nnewi chapter, Emeka Nzewi, is one of those crying out in this regard, as he continues to lament the rate at which small and medium scale enterprises in the zone are going under due to epileptic or non-existent power supply.
“Companies big and small continue to fold up every month due to lack of adequate power supply. The cost of providing power in those firms is so high that most of them barely break even at the end of each fiscal year. It has adversely affected the cost of production. In most cases, workers are being laid off in order to remain afloat, and you all know its grave consequences.
“It is also sad that state and federal governments in the country have repeatedly played to the gallery on the issue of revamping power, while the Igbo leaders remain helpless over this problem,” he said.
Among failed power projects that many recall as adding to the plight of the South East is the Oji River Power Plant, built before Nigeria’s Independence. At installation, the station was aimed at producing 10 megawatts (MW) of electricity with the assistance of turbines located at the Oji River, and was later upgraded to 30MW.
Since after the civil war, the fortune of the Oji River Power Plant has continued to dwindle, with the station currently a shadow of itself.
Critics lament that under the watch of known gladiators in Nigerian politics from the South East, the issue of reviving, upgrading and improving the plant has been swept under the carpet.
In fact, even as the campaigns gradually wind down, it is not certain if politicians from the South East who labour to market their presidential candidates have ever made any effort at pinning down either Jonathan or Buhari on emphatic statement about the hopeless state of industries in the zone occasioned by near absence of power supply.
Industries that have suffered the ugly fate include Standard Shoe Factory, Owerri, Imo State; Glass Industry, Aba, Abia State; Nigercem, Nkalagu; and Golden Guinea Breweries, Umuahia.
Also in the ugly league is the Project Development Institute of Nigeria (PRODA), Enugu State, which, aside the high cost of energy supply, also went under due to neglect by the federal government.
According to the chairman, Board of Directors of PRODA, Emmanuel Mbaka, the agency has not received capital vote from the federal government in the last 10 years.
This old research institute was established by the then East Central State in 1971 to sustain the technical needs of the area based on the experiences of the civil war. It was later taken over by the federal government in 1977. Ever since, nothing meaningful has been happening in the institute.
The story is the same in the old Nkalagu Cement Company Plc, makers of Nigercem.
Aside the controversies that had trailed the ownership of the company before it was taken over by the federal government, the five states of the South East that originally owned the firm, watched it crumble under their feet.
These are among several industries in the South East which had in the past provided employments and boosted the economy of the region. They are now, sadly, things for history books.
In one of President Jonathan’s rally in Ebonyi, he had announced government’s preparedness to revive Nigercem, noting that there is the need to diversify the country’s economy by taking a look at areas like solid minerals.
Observers, however, read in-between the President’s promise, describing it as one of the pledges he had made in the past that were not fulfilled. If anything, rather, there are allegations by stakeholders in the manufacturing industries that these issues may not have been put before the presidential candidates of APC and PDP.
They cited the second Niger Bridge as another instance of unrealised promise by the federal government. Even at that, it is being insinuated that by the time the bridge is ever done, the people would pay through the nose for using it.
In fact, former President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Dozie Ikedife, had remarked: “The second Niger Bridge is the only toll bridge in Nigeria and no other bridge built by the federal government has toll. There has been controversy over that bridge. At some point, it was reported that funds were not made available for the project. Later they said it had no design. Today there have been conflicting figures about the actual cost of the bridge.”
Amnesty and politics of reparation
These are other issues that South East indigenes allege that have not been tackled in their favour, compared to other zones. In this regard, every section of Nigeria has had its fair share of agitations, but what angers observers is what had been described as a show of sectionalism in the pursuit of peace.
They argue that since the Niger Delta militants were granted amnesty by the federal government, the issue of reparation being demanded by the Igbo as the result of the civil war and pogrom should be addressed.
In this agitation, First Republic Minister for Aviation, Mbazulike Amaechi, had lamented that a letter was written to the presidency in which Ndigbo demanded payment of N500 trillion as reparation, but ever since, they have not received any reply.
Same is the case with the issue of abandoned property of Ndigbo during the civil war in the Niger Delta. The issue has not been addressed till date, according to informed analysts.
Supporters of Jonathan and Buhari, however, claim that their candidates mean well for Ndigbo.
South East co-ordinator for Buhari, Senator Chris Ngige, particularly insist that the APC flag-bearer is aware of challenges facing the Igbo man on the account of these obvious incidences of injustice and would certainly address them, if elected.
“The APC already has a blueprint for Nigeria in general, and Ndigbo are not left out in the scheme of things. We, the Igbo in the APC, have already made our case known to Buhari and the party, and once we come into power, all these things will come on stream.
“It is also important to inform you that Buhari is a man of his words and highly alive to his responsibilities. While as Head of State, he was a detribalised Nigerian who never saw Nigerians from the angles of tribe or religion. As the chairman of Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) the South East got its share of amenities and we were not left out. We have a South East think-tank and all that Ndigbo need have been represented. It is only in PDP that our people sheepishly declared support for Jonathan without sitting him down first to discuss what should get to us. Most of them there are just for their personal gains,” he stated.
President Jonathan’s coordinator for Anambra State, Okey Ezenwa, had a contrary view. He, in fact, told reporters: “It must be put on record that Jonathan is one of us and a brother.
“There is nothing that concerns Ndigbo that he is not interested in. Look at political appointments, look at basic infrastructure and federal presence in Igbo land and you will discover that our people have not had it so good in the past until President Jonathan came on board.
“Be assured that the next four years of Jonathan’s administration would be great and endearing for Ndigbo and Nigerians in general.”
Sixth state for South East
Another move that may secure South East votes for Jonathan is if he summons the political will to implement the national conference report as approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
FEC on Wednesday, March 18, approved the full implementation of the resolutions contained in the 2014 National Conference Report as well as the modalities for the implementation of the report as approved by the conference.
Supervising Minister of Information, Edem Duke, and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, who are both members of FEC, announced the decision during a briefing after Wednesday’s FEC meeting.
The officials said the cabinet meeting praised members of the conference for their service to the nation.
The confab recommended an extra state, at least, for the South East, to bring it at par with other states, which have at least six states each. North West has seven states, North East has six, while North Central, apart from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, has six also. South West and South South have six apiece, while the South East has five.
Crux of the matter
Even with these assurances from the coordinators of the two rival candidates, observers insist that their pronouncements may not carry much weight, given that they cannot be regarded as commitments their principals can be held on to.
The fear, thus, is that in the absence of any solid commitment on Jonathan and Buhari by leaders of the South East, the zone may, once again, be relegated to the back waters of the country’s politics in the next four years.