BAD LEADERSHIP STALLING S/EAST DEVT - IFEANYI UBAH, SOLUDO

 

Three eminent Nige­rians have affirmed that the development challenges facing the South East in particular, and the nation in general, stemmed from bad leadership.

The prominent Nigerians, who bared their minds yester­day at a book launch, include the Chairman of Capital Oil and Gas Industries Limited, Dr Ifeanyi Ubah, former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof. Chukwuma Solu­do and revered Catholic Priest, Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah.

They spoke at the public presentation of a book titled: “The Politics of Biafra and the Future of Nigeria” at the Musa Yar’dua Centre, Abuja.

The book was written by former House of Representatives member, Hon. Chudi Of­fodile.

Dr Ubah and Soludo, who fo­cused on issues affecting the Igbo, said that bad leadership at both the federal and regional levels was responsible for the distorted de­velopment of the Igbo nation.

In his brief remark at the event, Dr. Ubah, who is also the Publisher of The AUTHORITY newspapers, said: “The under­development of the South-East is traceable to the bad leadership that has kept the country on its knees. The underdevelopment in the South-East is borne out of bad leadership. The Igbo are dis­advantaged.”

Prof Soludo, who was the re­viewer of the book, supported the growing demand for the restruc­turing of Nigeria. he stressed that the country should start consid­ering a new constitution.

On the poor state of infra­structure in the South East, Solu­do lamented that the elite from the region, who served at the fed­eral level, have failed to do any­thing positive to change the trend.

His words: “In the last admin­istration, for instance, we had the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Minister of Fi­nance and Coordinating Minis­ter of the Economy, the Deputy Senate President, this, that and so on. Almost all the financial insti­tutions in the country were head­ed by people from the South East and yet there is no motorable fed­eral highway in Igboland.

“This thing is an elite game as far as I am concerned. The issue of who and whatever will not take us anywhere.”

On restructuring, Soludu sad that “if we have a truly fed­eral, fairer, restructured Nigeria, the agitation for Biafra would wind up”.

He noted that Nigeria’s first President, the late Dr Nnam­di Azikiwe and the late Biafran leader, Chief Odumegwu-Ojuk­wu, would have wanted an equi­table federal system for Nigeria than a Biafran state.

Soludo continued: “Despite the rupture that existed between Zik and Ojukwu, if the two men were alive today, they would probably align more with a re­formed federalist Nigeria. And why I said this is that Ojukwu died a federalist. Because after the war, Ojukwu, when he came back to Nigeria, joined the de­funct NPN (National Party of Ni­geria) and urged the Igbo to go back to be reintegrated into Ni­geria. And even at that, he later joined the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and became its national leader. And APGA is a national party which, among oth­er things, agitates for true feder­alism. And he contested as a presidential candidate of APGA seeking to be president of Nige­ria. So, when you put all togeth­er, Ojukwu, if alive, would rather seek for a true federal, fairer Ni­geria.”

Soludo stated that Nigeria, at this time, requires a new consti­tution, which will contain inputs from Nigerians on their desire to strike a balanced federation.

He described Biafra as a met­aphor for agitation by those he described as the oppressed peo­ple of the South East, stating that a balanced federation being can­vased by different ethnic groups in the country would provide an answer to the struggle.

He said the administration of President Buhari should nev­er overlook the import of agita­tion for Biafra by IPOB, contend­ing that the more the government attempts to down play it, the more it will gain attention.

Soludo alluded to the arrest and continued detention of Kanu by the Federal Government as an error, which according to him, has continued to give prominence to the struggle for Biafra by IPOB

He said the government has invariably made Kanu a hero of the Biafran struggle, which, he noted, is already being main­streamed both locally and inter­nationally

The former CBN Governor, however, canvassed for the release of Kanu, as according to him, at­tempts by the government to keep him in detention, will not serve the government any good.

He said already the detained Kanu has become a phenomenon in Igboland today such that his is­sue vis-avis the Biafran struggle would be used as a major point of campaign in the South East in 2019.

He said: “I agree that we need a new constitution negotiated by the people of Nigeria. My thesis is that, if this is the only achieve­ment of President Muhammadu Buhari, it would have been great­est statesman ever like Abraham Lincoln but we need to get start­ed.”

“On the new Biafranism; let me say that wittingly or unwit­tingly Nigeria has brought the Biafran issue from the periph­ery into the mainstream discus­sions. Nnamdi Kanu threw a bait and Nigeria took it. Today, it is the most popular political phrase and he will end up as a hero or a ma­tyr but to his credit he has forced Nigeria and the world to discuss Biafra.

“I believe that keeping him there doesn’t do Nigeria any good. I believe this young man should be released and released by yesterday. I will not be sur­prised if he becomes a subject of the next political campaign.”

On appointments, Soludo said that: “It is not just the South East or the Igbo that complain. Nigeria has not worked. And my thesis is that even if any govern­ment including this one have all the political appointments from one village, the life of the aver­age person in that village will not change.

“Take for instance the North, if you calculate the number of years they have been in power, but essentially, poverty is still pre­dominately a northern phenom­enon. So that you control this and a few billionaires are made here and there, and so on, means ab­solute nothing. The ordinary man in Nigeria has not benefited and the situation is getting worse by the current system in the coun­try”.

In his address, Bishop Ku­kah charged the Igbo to evolve a means whereby they will con­solidate on their comparative ad­vantage of “power without office.”

Elaborating on the concept of “power without office”, Kukah urged the Igbo to consider their strategic power position though without office and leverage on its many advantages.

Speaking on state creation, he said, “We can create new states but the moment you create a new state, the majority becomes the minority and minority becomes a majority and the contestation is renewed and the issues are the same namely; a tiny circle of elite that simply want to serve nobody but themselves. And I think for me that is where the issues are.”

The book launch was attend­ed by prominent Igbo leaders in­cluding former Vice President, Dr. Alex Ekweme, former Sen­ate President, Chief Ken Nnam­ani, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Emeka Ihedioha and former governor of Abia State, Dr Orji Uzor Kalu.

Others were former Minister of Health, Professor ABC Nwo­su, former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka, a governorship aspirant in Anambra State, Sen­ator Uche Ekwunife and former Speaker of the House of Repre­sentatives, Umar Ghali Na’Abba.