From Magnus Eze, Enugu
The Association of Igbo Town Unions (ASITU) has cried out that the intractable security situation in the South East has posed a huge existential threat to residents.
ASITU alleged that countless lives have been lost while coffin making has become the only booming business in the region.
The President of ASITU, Chief Emeka Diwe’s lamention came on the heels of the South East Governors’ Forum (SEGF), meeting in Enugu on Friday, which vowed to collaborate with the federal government in rooting out insecurity in the region.
Also, the founder of Igbo Youth Movement (IYM) and Secretary, Eastern Consultative Assembly (ECA), Evang. Eliot Ukoh, has accused the Federal Government of worsening the agitation for a separate state by youths in the South East by ignoring the root cause of the agitation.
Diwe opined that insecurity in the zone was hydra-headed and would require multi-dimensional solutions. The town union leader noted that the core people with direct links with the grassroots had been ignored in pursuit of solutions.
He also said that tackling the security challenge in the region would require sincerity on the part of the governors and other Igbo leaders.
“People are dying. The only booming industry now is the coffin business. Those are the only people who are in business. If you ask them, they will tell you that business is booming. They will tell you that today is better than yesterday and that this week is better than last week. I am telling you what is on ground.
“These people only stay in Abuja and they don’t even know what is happening. Just take five people each from the communities, don’t even call Emeka Diwe; they are people who are managers of those people on ground. They know what they are suffering, they know where to start work,” he stated.
Diwe further emphasised there was no single solution to the problem. He blamed everybody, including the governors, stakeholders and security agencies, for the festering security situation in the zone.
He explained: “I was thinking initially that it is one application. But, look, something that is hydra headed; the solution will also be hydra-headed. If the governors are part of the problem and you don’t solve that problem as emanating from the governors, there is nothing you can do, because they have the power; they have resources and they have everything. So, it is not a one-off thing. This is what insecurity is like.
“What’s ‘unknown gunmen’? If by any way of imagination or juxtaposition these so-called unknown gunmen have something to do with the police or with government, do you think the insecurity will stop? So, this thing is not as it is being said. It is complicated.
“You don’t shave somebody’s head in his absence. You will see that all of them are related to the people, but all of the time they are in Abuja. And the leadership of the people you say you are representing; you don’t involve them. Look at all the committees they set up, nobody from the grassroots where the people you are supposed to be representing are there. Is it not the person who wears the shoe that should know where it pinches?”
The governors had, at a meeting with other Igbo leaders in Abuja on Monday, July 10, “resolved that a high-powered Igbo delegation will meet the Presidency to discuss the immediate and remote causes, as well as the viable solutions to the insecurity in the South East.”
The meeting, which was hosted at the Imo Government Lodge by the Forum’s Chairman and Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodimma, noted that security was included in the Exclusive Legislative List in the Nigerian Constitution, and the powers to deploy the Nigerian military and the Police to strategic places in the country resided with the Presidency.
A communiqué at the Enugu meeting stated that “the Forum firmly resolved to fight insecurity decisively in the region individually and collectively, in partnership with the Federal Government and other stakeholders.” They also applauded the security agencies for their cooperation so far and encouraged them not to relent. In addition, the governors said: “We wish to state categorically that the perpetrators of the insecurity in our region and their sponsors are criminals and should not be seen as legitimate agitators. Therefore, upon arrest, they should be dealt with in accordance with the laws of the land.
“The Forum resolved to hold the security and economic summit on a date to be announced soon.”
All the five governors in the zone – Uzodinma (Imo); Prof. Chukwuma Soludo (Anambra); Dr. Alex Otti (Abia); Francis Nwifuru (Ebonyi) and Dr. Peter Mbah (Enugu) – attended the meeting.
Ukoh, who is also the Deputy Secretary, Igbo Leaders of Thought (ILT), likened the Federal Government’s approach to the issue of agitation to treating symptoms of a sickness while paying no attention to the cause of the ailment.
He recalled in 1999 how Ralph Uwazuruike gathered some few Igbo youths in his Lagos residence as he formed the Movement for Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), which later metamorphosed into IPOB and other pro-Biafra groups while the Federal Government ignored the issues he was raising.
He said, as long as the issues of marginalization of the Ndigbo in Nigeria remained, there would be individuals who would seize the opportunity to successfully promote separatist agenda due to the frustrating situation Ndigbo have found themselves in since the end of the civil war.
“We are only addressing the symptom while dutifully ignoring the root cause of the problem. We have been doing just that with the agitation ravaging the South East for 24 years. The hype in the land today is only addressing the symptoms. Not a word is mentioned on how to address the root cause of the agitation.”
Some of the issues pointed out by Uwazuruike, according to Ukoh, include that “the suffocating unitary structure of the country is retrogressive, anti growth and retards positive development, while encouraging sleaze.
“That the deliberate decision of denying their region, the South East, since the end of the war in 1970, needed and critical infrastructure such as a functional international airport with Cargo wing, a functioning sea port, railway services, including development of the much-needed East/West rail link (PH through Aba, Onitsha, Benin, Lagos to Cotonou, Accra etc).
“Dry Port at Aba, export processing centre at the Ninth mile corner, Enugu; electricity generation that would bolster industrialisation and good road network, creates a lasting and painful feeling of alienation, that makes it difficult for youths of the region to have a sense of belonging in the country among others.”
He noted that when Uwazurike appointed Nnamdi Kanu a decade later to handle their new radio in London, the authorities resolutely refused to address the root cause of the problem.
“As Nnamdi amplified the message through his broadcasts, so did the bitterness and anger in the soul of the aggrieved younger generation grow. His rhetoric resonated with them and their ranks grew exponentially into millions. Nobody thought it proper to engage them.
“From 2009 up until 2015 when he was arrested in a Lagos hotel, our regional leaders didn’t see any reason to present the truth to the Federal Government. Nnamdi’s arrest in 2015 and the style of governance at the centre at the time greatly blew up the agitation. Nnamdi soon became the new face of the agitation, displacing Ralph.”
Ukoh regretted that nothing was done to restore the faith of the youths in the system or reassure them that their fears would be addressed. Instead of deploying a non kinetic strategy in resolving the issues fuelling the agitation, he said that the authorities and their advisers only chose military offensive in containing the agitation.
“Truth is: Ralph, Nnamdi and the fellow in Finland and, in fact, future leaders of the agitation, are all exploiting and taking advantage of the frustration in the souls of millions of Easterners, especially the younger generation, who feel isolated, mistreated and disrespected since 1970.
“As long as compatriots refuse to devolve powers to the federating units, very few folks will continue to determine the destiny of over 200 million citizens, engendering fears of marginalisation and domination, inspiring agitation.
“Both the insecurity and sit-at-home crippling the region are consequences and symptoms of a much deeper malaise. Yet, we seem only interested in tackling only the symptoms while dutifully ignoring the root cause of the agitation.
“The feeling of rejection occasioned by acute deliberate marginalization and oppression of the region since 1970 gave birth to the agitation. Addressing this root problem, will better resolve the agitation, let truth be told.
“Sit-at-home is a consequence and symptom of the anger and frustration in the heart of aggrieved people,” Ukoh stated.
