By Nnedi Ogaziechi
These are not the best of times for
Ndigbo. The people under reference are the very ordinary people in villages,
clans and streets of major capitals of the five states in the region. These are
the people that are literarily hanging on the edge of the precipice. The IPOB
discourse seems to have created a deeply blurry view of who those to be held
accountable really are.
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| *South East Governors and Leaders meet with IPOB Leader, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu |
It is politically safe to blame the
federal government for marginalization, to complain about lack of federal
presence as regards the chronic absence of infrastructure in the region since
the end of the civil war. But then, IPOB comes on the scene and the governors
are somewhat glad for the seeming ‘alibi’ for lack of a strong regional
economic plan for development of both human and natural resources that the
region has in amazing abundance.
Since 1999, there has been several economic summits, conferences
and fairs by both independent and state economic think tanks. Most of these
conferences had been targeted at educating governors from the region to form a
stronger regional bond that would be beneficial to the region economically,
socially and even politically.
The idea has always been that if
the governors of the region can manage to look beyond politics and think of
development of the region for the people, there must be a coordinated and
deliberate effort by governors of the five states to harness to the maximum the
resources available to the states which by the way had worked in the past with
the past visionary leaders of the region.
