• Seek involvement of OPS in regional dev’t
From Magnus Eze, Enugu, Aloysius Attah, Onitsha and Ogbonnaya Ndukwe, Aba
Business community in the South East has asked governors in the zone to eschew individualism and forge cooperation for the development of the region.
They identified development of the rail system, security, power and roads as areas the states should cooperate, citing what was going on in the South West states.
Some businessmen, who spoke, said only regional cooperation could enable the people of the area to fully benefit from the present enhanced attention some of the states were placing on repositioning and upgrading of infrastructures.
They also said governments and the organised private sector groups in the five states needed to work in synergy.
This comes on the heels of huge investments organisations, like Geometric Power, have thrown into the system in Aba, Abia State, to ensure uninterrupted electricity power supply, the rehabilitation of the Enugu/Port Harcourt expressway, eastern rail lines currently being restored, as well as promises from the Federal Government, to reignite the industrialisation of the zone.
Immediate past president of Aba Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (ACCIMA), Jerry Kalu, said there was need to link the major cities in the zone with a rail line, good roads and other infrastructures that will bring them together industrially and provide avenues of assisting one another, in development.
In achieving this, Kalu said private sector organs should always be taken in by governments of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states, in planning their annual, medium and long-term development programmes and budgeting, to accommodate all sectors of the society.
He commended Governor Alex Otti’s administration in Abia, for being the first to ever invite ACCIMA to participate and present the needs and aspirations of the organised private sector for input into the 2024 budget, during the preparations last year.
Former president of Onitsha Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (ONICIMA), Kevin Obieri, said individualism was the bane of development in the region.
Obieri said such attitude affects everything happening in the South East, noting that even the altruistic ones among the people talk about their community, town or friends instead of collective development of the region.
According to him, the individualistic approach to life also made the South East Governors’ Forum a very weak institution not strong enough to help articulate and pursue an integrated approach to development in the zone in the areas of power, railway and security, industrial concerns and transportation.
“Any railway or road that does not take into consideration its outlet to the sea and the need for our people to evacuate their imports easily into the hinterlands, will always have problems. To get the private sector to support it will be difficult too because the private sector is also looking for its own benefits, what affects it directly.
“It is a very complex situation that needs good leadership, a leadership that plays beyond party and personal levels. A leadership that can look at things in the overall benefit of the region,” he said.
In addition, Obieri called for the decentralisation of the security architecture in Nigeria.
“Let there be clear cut constitutional changes in theory and practice and our people can do more in this regard. People come from Imo State and do kidnapping in Anambra and go back. Without proper cooperation between the South East governors, there will always be problems. Today, you hardly hear Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma and Anambra State Governor, Charles Soludo talking because they belong to different parties. Otti is on his own too and this situation is not the best for us,” he said.