Guardian

AS various shades of reactions trail the dashed hopes of many in the Southeast over the much-expected creation of states by the National Assembly following ongoing constitutional amendment; stakeholders have insisted that nothing short of an additional state would be acceptable to the people of the zone.

The Senate Committee in its report struck out 61 applications on grounds of noncompliance with constitutional provisions. Of the 61 applications, the Southeast has demand for two states — Aba (Abia) and Adada (Enugu).

In its reaction, the apex socio-cultural organisation of Ndigbo insisted that the Southeast would continue to demand parity and the creation of another state in the zone.

“We do not care how they do it. Whatever has to be done must be done as long as the Southeast is brought on the same level with other zones,” said the organisation’s President-General, Chief Gary Enwo Igariwey.

He said that the equalisation of the zones is the only way for the survival of the country, stressing that Ndigbo reject in its entirety the decision of the committee, which he said is “anti-nation building.”

While pointing out that Ndigbo reject the five states imposed on the Southeast, he said that any, “nation that must survive must do so based on equity, justice and fair play,” adding, “it is time to address the cry of marginalisation by Ndigbo.”

“They (National Assembly) must equalise the zones by whatever means that they want to take if they don’t want to create new states,” he said. “If they want to do so by the special votes of the National Assembly, let them go ahead and do it, but what we are saying is that Ndigbo need at least one additional state to equal it with other zones with six states.

“We cannot to be marginalised by our fellow Nigerians. Let them do whatever is possible to address the lopsidedness in the polity and give Ndigbo their due share in the interest of justice.”

Former Minister of Aviation in the First Republic, Chief Mbazulike Amechi, described the development as the continuation of the marginalisation of Ndigbo in the scheme of things in the country, stressing that the time had come for Ndigbo to come and rethink on how to live in Nigeria.

“In creation of states, Southeast was reduced to five states while others have six and seven states,” he said.

“Some years ago, a decision was made to create an additional state in Igboland to balance the polity. What the resolution means is that the marginalisation of Ndigbo should continue and the injustice continue.”

He noted that, “our people are still licking the wounds of the Civil War. Ndigbo should come back home and think how to belong to Nigeria.”

“It is for Nigeria to take care, it is for the political leaders to take care; otherwise, they are moving towards a dangerous precipice and Nigeria as it stands today is sitting on a keg of gunpowder.”

Amechi said that issues that prompted the war over 40 years ago had not been settled even with the declaration of “No victor, No vanquished,” alleging an orchestrated plan to ensure Ndigbo continue to play a second fiddle.

He continued: “The Civil War ended almost four decades ago and when it ended, the then Head of State said no victor no vanquished. It was borne out of hypocrisy because when the war ended, Igbo property were treated as abandoned property and no compensation paid.

“A year or two after the war, the entire currency was changed and the Igbo was affected and no matter how much you had, you were given only two pounds.”

He also claimed that the Federal Government decided there would be no power in Igboland and, “they did this by closing the Oji Power Station then running on coal. The Afam power station in Aba division was excised and annexed to Rivers State.”

He said that crises had been happening in the country and on each occasion, “it is the Igbo people that are killed and their property destroyed. When a book was written overseas sometime against, the Muslims came back here and instead of confronting those who wrote against them, started killing Igbo and destroying their property.”

“Look at what is happening now. Some people are busy killing others in the North in the name of Boko Haram. What the Federal Government decided to do was to give them amnesty, pay them money and the people who suffered from these brutalities are not being taken care of.

“Look at the case of MASSOB members, who were found with no guns; they (government) decided that they should face treasonable charges.”

A National ex-officio member of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Mr. Amaechi Okeke, said the Senate took the position because members did not understand the feelings of the masses of the Southeast.

He noted that, “this is a wake-up call for Southeast legislators to come together and reconsider the fate of an average Igbo man in Nigeria. Are we part of Nigeria; don’t we deserve better treatment and the number of states in Nigeria should be balanced?”

He said that by this decision, “we will continue to lose revenue, employment, infrastructure because anything would be shared according to the number of wards, councils, states, etc. This is pure marginalisation; Nigeria is not one.”

Mr. Chibuzor Molokwu, a public affairs analyst, feels that the committee ought to have first created a balance in all the zones before anything else.

He insisted that it had taken a wrong decision in its failure to understand the feelings of the people on state creation.

“They forgot that it’s only the Southeast that has five states and the rest have six or seven,” he said.

“The Constitution should be amended to bring the zone at par with others first. Failure to do so is not democratic and will amount to gross marginalisation of the Southeast.”

While harping that the number of states in a zone is one of the parameters for sharing the “national cake,” and that Ndigbo must not be denied the opportunity, Molokwu said, “creation of additional state will give the Southeast more bargaining power in the comity of other zones, because the number of states qualifies for number of allocation of seats at the National Assembly, national planning, distribution of federal projects, etc.”

A former two-term lawmaker in the Imo State House of Assembly, Mr. Oliver Enwerenem, faulted the National Assembly for its “untenable excuses for not creating another state in the Southeast.”

According to him: “It is very unfortunate that only the military could create states in this country. It is also unfortunate that a democratically elected civilian government cannot create states. The stability of our country is at stake. I advise the National Assembly to find solution to this.”

Mr. Ogechukwu Ezeajughi, a political scientist noted that, “many of us had thought that the creation of additional state in the zone would have been a step towards proper re-integration of Ndigbo into the Nigerian federation, but the present stance of the Senate means that this is a perpetuation of injustice to the Igbo nation.”

Mr. Obasi Uchenna, a businessman in Awka, Anambra State, said that the decision was worrisome and a bad omen for the zone.

“This implies cheating of Ndigbo are part of the marginalisation we have been complaining about for long,” he said.

“For balance, even if the Senate committee could not create more states, our zone should have been considered and given one more state to make us be like others.

“We are told that Nigeria is made up of three major tribes, and if they want to maintain the balance, let there be equal states.”

Meanwhile, a lawyer and former member of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly, Ray Akanwa, said that he thought the National Assembly would have used the opportunity of the constitutional amendment to break the jinx that civilian administrations cannot create states in Nigeria.

Regretting that “since they have examined the documents and come out with that position, so be it,” he said the legislators should have acquiesced to the demand for the creation of additional state in the Southeast for fairness and equity.

He said until the National Assembly published the various requests for state creation, it would be seen that the legislators decided to give their own interpretation to constitutional provisions regarding state creation, stressing that the nation would continue to witness agitation for more states.