From Ifeoma Ejiofor
….. Southeast should harness its geographic advantages
The Southeast states should set up a regional consultative council made of key stakeholders from the National Assembly, State Houses of Assembly, chairmen of state traditional councils and select keyholders, to take decisions on Education, Health Care, Human Capital Development, and Infrastructural development.
Chief Osita Chidoka made the call while delivering a lecture at the 8th Kalu Ezera Annual Lecture titled Time to Renew the Southeast is Now organised by the Nigerian Political Science Association Southeast Zone in Enugu. The Regional Consultative Assembly will provide the platform for adopting a regional approach to the development of the southeast leveraging our land size and population density, Chidoka said.
Chidoka, an erstwhile Minister of Aviation explained that the southeast has geographic dividends that it must utilise. “The Southeast with a land area the size of Kogi state and four times the population of Kogi state is viewed as a land poor and dense human habitation. However, I consider neighbouring states of Kogi and Benue in the north and Delta, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross Rivers in the south as our geographic dividend. The southeast can leverage the neighbours in the north for agricultural investments across the value chain of food and livestock production to agro-processing. In the south, the vast oil and gas resources states present opportunities to build businesses in ICT, construction, oil and gas, technical education, environmental remediation and others by leveraging on the oil and gas revenues in the south-south.”
He identified some challenges confronting the southeast including a small economy “We have a small economy combined. The total Internally Generated Revenue of the five southeast states is lower than that of Ogun state and four times less than the Lagos State IGR. The combined 2022 budget of the five southeast states is about 1 trillion Naira ($2.2bn) which is equal to the budget of Delta and Akwa Ibom states and compares poorly with the budget of Los Angeles local government at about $11bn.” Other challenges he listed include poor ranking in the ease of doing business, dearth of infrastructure, poor land management, rising insecurity and threat to the Igbo language.
Chidoka who was the 9th guest lecturer since the inception of the lecture series, called for a regional university system built on the existing state universities utilising the University of California model. He also advised the setting up of regional land geographic management system to unlock the potentials of properties in the zone. “A regional hospital system can build the scale to transform the southeast zone to a continental destination for medical tourism,” he proposed. Chidoka also called for a regional criminal justice system and security outfit to stem the rising insecurity.
To mitigate the threat the Igbo language is facing, Chidoka advocated for “public signages, general announcements and billboards in the east should be made in English and Igbo. Reversing the threat confronting the Igbo language will require drastic efforts including promoting the language as the language of government business.”
Professor Kalu Ezera Lecture series was instituted by the Southeast Zone of Nigerian Political Science Association to honour the foremost political scientist from the southeast, late Prof Kalu Ezera. Chidoka paid glowing tribute to Prof Kalu Ezera, who he revealed was a maternal Uncle to his wife, a fact not known to the organisers, when they approached him to deliver the lecture. At the lecture the Kalu Ezera family was represented for the first time by Nnamdi Ezera who is a lawyer with the United States Department of Commerce. Nnamdi thanked the organisers for honouring his late father and pledged the family’s continued support for the lecture series.
Late Professor Kalu, Ezera an indigene of Ohafia, Abia State, was sponsored by the Ohafia community to study in the United States. He graduated from Lincoln University and proceeded to Harvard University for his MA. At Harvard, his intellectual abilities flowered, and he got a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University for his Ph.D. His book Constitutional Development in Nigeria is a reference material for political scientists and Nigeria watchers.
In applauding the Association Chidoka said “I commend the Nigerian Political Science Association, Southeast Zone for this opportunity to share my thoughts on the current issues confronting the Southeast and indeed Nigeria. Speaking as the guest lecturer at the Professor Kalu Ezera lecture series is an honour that I bear with humility.” He called on the upcoming generation of political scientists to continue the tradition of quality academic discourse in the tradition of Prof Kalu Ezera.