SEDC: Respondents doubt delivery capacity

The Igbo country was all joy and jubilation following what the people called “the latest wonder of the modern world” which is the signing into law by President Bola Tinubu, the South East Development Commission (SEDC), on Tuesday, July 23, 2024.

For more than five decades, the South East has suffered from untold marginalization from the successive Federal Government of Nigeria. The attendant effects since then have been horrifying and awful as central Abuja forces virtually neglect the South East, and the country functions as if the zone does not exist.

Since the end of the civil war in 1970, the Igbo nation has been experiencing rapid and horrendous infrastructural decay and dilapidation following years of neglect by the federal government at the center.

Despite retired General Yakubu Gowon’s promise of 3R – Reconciliation, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction – the Igbo region was left unattended to as the federal agencies charged with urban and rural development cared less and unconcerned about the area. Thus, the 3R, under the supervision of then Colonel Olusegun Obasanjo, the federal commissioner of works, failed completely.

As Obasanjo failed in 1970, so also all the other federal governments have failed to listen to the lamentations of Ndigbo on marginalization, neglect, and exclusion. Ndigbo has been in dire straits since 1970 till date, crying for attention and uplift.

This is the reason a wide range of commendations greeted the coming of the SEDC now viewed as a panacea for high-scale development in the Igbo nation.

“President Tinubu believes in building the nation on the fulcrum of fairness, equity, and unity; hence, he is committed to ensuring equitable development, inclusive governance, and the provision of qualitative services to all Nigerians – no matter where they reside, while knitting even more tightly together the national fabric,” Imo State governor Sen Hope Uzodimma, said.

The apex Igbo sociocultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo lauded the South East Development Commission as a good step by Tinubu. According to the body: “It is a quantum leap, a hope renewal and a significant part of a new beginning by President Tinubu”.

A statement by Ohanaeze’s national publicity secretary, Dr Alex Ogbonnia, said: “The SEDC is expected to manage funds allocated from the Federation Account for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of roads, and other infrastructural deficits suffered by the region due to age-long neglect.

“The SEDC will tackle ecological problems and related environmental challenges that have devastated the Southeast for decades.

“The SEDC will go a long way to assuage the feelings of the Igbo concerning the 3R sophistry by General Yakubu Gowon in January 1970.

“Gowon had assured the world that there would be three Rs: Reconciliation, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction of the Igboland as a result of war ravages.

“But 54 years after the war, the Southeast has witnessed the direct opposite of the 3Rs, even in exponential proportion.

“For instance, the Southeast has the least number of local government areas, the least number of states, the least in political appointments, the least members in the House of Representatives, the least in the Senate, and of course the worst in infrastructure.

“The foregoing structures are the federal allocation tributaries that have enlarged the coast of other geopolitical zones, leaving the Southeast of Nigeria in the cold.

“No one should, therefore, look elsewhere in the search for the persistent youth restiveness and secessionist agitations in the region.”

Ohanaeze thanked Tinubu for the great, commendable gesture that his predecessors failed to carry out.

“As it stands, President Tinubu has shown a major departure from the Buhari regime by signing the SEDC Bill into Law; appointing Sen. Umahi, a brilliant and prudent engineer as the minister of works, and Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla as the Chief of the Naval Staff.

“This is a quantum leap and a new beginning,” Ohanaeze enthused.

The legislator who -re-initiated as well as facilitated the signing of the SEDC bill into law, Hon Benjamin Kulu representing Bende Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, noted that the scheme would heal the wounds of the past, bury the rumours of the marginalization of the South-East geopolitical zone, and renew the hope of the nation towards equitable economic growth and sociocultural renewal.

He said, “This will trigger multiplier effects in a massive employment boom as a result of industrialization, and the outcomes of the work organisations like the SEDC will engineer.”

Kalu added that the commission “Will receive and manage funds from the allocation of the Federation Account for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of roads, houses, and other infrastructural damages suffered by the zone as a result of the civil war.

“It will also tackle ecological problems and other related environmental or developmental challenges in the South-East States including Abia, Imo, Enugu, Anambra, and Ebonyi.”

The deputy speaker of the Federal House of Representatives concluded by noting that “Our innovative mindedness will leverage the opportunities in the digital economy, our creativity will birth a greater cultural and entertainment platform such as Igbowood and our youth and women demography will play a major role in the energy of our development.

“It is time to put our huge gap deposit in the region to use for industrial parks that will bring value to the nation. Most of the radicalized youths will now have jobs to engage them productively among others”.

A commentator and social critic, Emeka Duru, highlighted some of the ill treatments meted out on Ndigbo by the Federal Government of Nigeria and why the SEDC was urgently needed in this material time.

He enumerated this: “The South East is submission has, rather, been facing serious marginalisation in terms of admission of indigenes to Unity Schools, higher institutions, employment into federal establishments, recruitment and advancement in the armed forces and paramilitary institutions as well as infrastructural development.

“The commission will be charged with the responsibility to receive and manage funds from the allocation of the federation account for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of roads, houses, and other infrastructural damage suffered by the region as a result of the 1967-1970 civil war and other challenges.

“The commission will also tackle the ecological problems and any other related environmental or developmental shortfalls in the states. SEDC’s primary aim is to provide essential infrastructural facilities such as roads, bridges, healthcare facilities, and educational institutions. It is also to stimulate economic activities in the South East region by addressing historical neglect and disparities”.

Duru was not carried away by the eulogies that greeted the coming of the commission as he bluntly argued that it was long overdue. “It won’t be out of place to argue that the coming of the SEDC is long overdue, given the existence of similar bodies like the North East Development Commission (NEDC), Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), in other regions of the country. All the same, its approval by the president is a welcome development”, he emphasized.

However, many Igbo people say the commission cannot address or fix anything meaningful in the South East. Izuchukwu Igwe Njoku, an economist, said that given previous experiences, Ndigbo shouldn’t expect much from the commission.

“I can tell you that Nigeria has yet to change. Ndigbo are still regarded as outsiders. The Federal Government of Nigeria has been neglecting as well as marginalizing the South East since 1970, I doubt if anything has changed for the better. In 1970 we had the so-called 3R by the then head of state, General Gowon. Nothing good came out of it.

“The late President Shagari instituted a National Development Plan, comparing what was given to Ndigbo and what other regions got. Ours was a grain if put side – by side with the solid projects that went to the other zones. Of course, the late General Sani Abacha’s petroleum projects supervised by retired General Buhari treated the Southeast with absolute disdain – we never got anything. Therefore, I don’t have any hope that SEDC will ever yield positive dividends”, Njoku pointed out.