Elder statesman Charles Ogbonnaya has expressed disappointment with governors and other political leaders for not showing enough support for the take-off of the South East Development Commission, SEDC, which, according to him, is a catalyst for the rebuilding of the South East.
Ogbonna, a former two-time commissioner and former Deputy Chief of Staff to the Abia State Governor, said that the SEDC Bill, sponsored by the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu and passed by the Green Chamber, is the first concrete effort to address the degradation in the southeast following the civil war.
Ogbonnaya, who spoke to journalists in Umuahia, lamented that governors and other political leaders from the zone have not yet shown enough support for the noble programme to take off.
According to him, given the developmental challenges in the southeast, especially in road infrastructure, the commission is needed for rapid improvement in development. He pointed out that the philosophy of SEDC is in tandem with the development agenda of the late Dr Michael Okpara, as encapsulated in the document establishing the Eastern Nigeria Development Corporation, ENDC.
He noted that cocoa farms, rubber and palm plantations, Metropolitan Hotel (in Calabar), Presidential Hotel (in Enugu and Port Harcourt), as well as Golden Guinea Breweries, among other industries, were established under ENDC by Dr Okpara.
The Igbo leader, who argued that massive support from political leaders in the southeast was necessary to drive the commission through the intervention of the federal government, said that there should be a collaboration between the federal government and South East states in funding the rebuilding of the region’s infrastructure.
” I believe that Hon. Benjamin Kalu has presented us with a golden opportunity to rebuild the southeast, which was ravaged by the civil war. I believe all of us have to come together to make it possible by putting pressure on the federal government to do the needful,” Ogbonnaya said.
