Abagworo: Southeast has been receiving the least funds in Nigeria for more than 40 years but we are thriving. Our major problem remains public utilities, urban renewal, pipe-borne water and good refuse disposal in our cities. In terms of housing, Southeast is far ahead of the rest of the country. Our houses look dirty now because of bad roads and secondly some parts that have laterite surface soil that tends to discolor houses after every harmattan. Our economic hopes lies in Anambra and Abia which actually could have been leading the rest of Africa if not for misplaced priorities by successive governments. The biggest mistake was making Awka and Umuahia capital of Anambra and Abia and in that process denying the required formal/public sector from merging with commerce and industry to create a Kano or Ibadan in Igboland where a State capital will be fully commercial and industrial.

Why have I been a major critic of Peter Obi? From every information at my reach, he tried better than the other Governors before him and that is commendable but if he had focused on Onitsha in particular and Nnewi most of Igboland will be affected positively.


Now these are pictures from Aba and Onitsha which was developed through individual efforts without Goverment contribution.

Keneking: I have visited all the states and their capitals in the SE region and can objectively rate them as follows:

1. Enugu - 52%
2. Imo - 51%
3. Anambra : 41%
4. Abia : 33%
5 Ebonyi : 23% - this should be downgraded as a local government in Enugu

Kponkwem: The region receives the lowest allocation, check ur records. But the number of housing estates across the cities in the south east is opening up new areas. New investments especially SME are coming in.
BTW can u show me just one city in SW that is better than any of the SE capitals?

gratiaeo: AFAM not until you point out what's happening in other states apart from development on white papers i wouldn't comment
@ least use Osun state as a yardstick

me_for_you: Afam, let me take u on 2 of your arguments and come back later. Remember SE land mass is ver small. Infact the land mass of the entire SE is not up to 3 local govts in niger state.
Enugu has a standard stadium azikiwe intl stadium. Owerri has an equally standard stadium, dan anyiam. Abia has eyimba stadium, though not fantastic but they naija premier leagues there. Anambra has rojenni stadium oba, though private, but it serves well.
Enugu has an intl airport. Owerri has a good airport awka-enugu, abakiliki to enugu, umuahia to owerri - all about an hour drive.
So why should SE state govts embark on white elephant airport and stadia projects when the ones they have are in good condition?

St_Black:

Why ask that?

Though I might not have a first-hand experience of that, I unarguable have witnessed a similar scenario.

...And perhaps, what gies you the conviction that your ideas will be welcomed when presented? PLS TALK.

one.east1:







Yes, bro people like abagworo should be banished if Igbo land will have genuine peace and development devoid of rancor and unhealthy competitions. Go through abagworo posts over time you will realize that in most cases he will start an e-war and expect people to align with it, but I equally learnt to swiftly attack him where necessary to make sure that I whip him into line.

On your comment concerning airports why should a non viable state like Imo own an airport whereas economically viable states as Anambra and Abia does not have? It is only in Nigeria that you see such madness. And you are suggesting to them to use it and make viable whereas they do not benefit from its revenue.

I have kept saying it let all the states develop at its own pace. If any state which feels that it has capacity to develop an airport let it go on with it and not for some states to build an airport with intention of tapping human and material resources from other states.

In the case of Anambra the approval has been given and site for the International Cargo airport has been acquired around Otuocha axis. I will posit that each state should develop at its own pace without having to wait for any other. That is why America is the most developed country in the world.

Sunny_bobo: Anambra has the best road network in Nigeria. Anambra has the highest human capital in Nigeria, Ogun state comes a distant second.

geeez:

On the average, the SE states get more from the centre than they contribute to it

The same goes for the entire north

Only the SW and SS receive less from the centre than they contribute to it

Chima_Agbalajob:

WHAT DOES THE AVERAGE SW STATE CONTRIBUTE TO THE CENTER?

COCOA?

eggheaders:

Sunny my boy, which anambra?? The one in mars. Its seems you are high on camel menstral flow. The same anambra I know like the back of my palm. Upper iweka - main market through uberfish junction deathtrap. Onitsha - Enugu expressway, oguata road potholed, unizik junction accident on a regular. Human development gini nwoke, the same place that has the highest number of gun wielding touts collecting levels from traders(mpaizu), what about the uzo boy(truck pusher). Carry your lies go front before I turn your dentition formulae to 0/0/0. Pa saranya gi there.

Chima_Agbalajob:

WHAT DOES THE AVERAGE SW STATE CONTRIBUTE TO THE CENTER?

COCOA?

superstar1:

Just VAT being generated from SW alone is enough.

odua boy: Google is your friend,Southsouth contributes most to the federation account followed by southwest.
Southeast contributes little.
And the north contributes basically nothing.

gratiaeo:
Which ore fixed? Ore i plied on Thursday?
As i speak badagry express way can only compare with hell.
The work there is as dull as it sound

Chima_Agbalajob:

[size=15pt]VAT from where Osogbo or Iseyin?

Don't mention Lagos from that your rotten mouth because you know Lagos economy is contributed by ALL Nigerians as federal capital not yoruba people.[/size]

Chima_Agbalajob:

[size=13pt]As a matter of fact, oil makes 90% of Nigeria's total earnings and 95% of the oil is in the SS![/size]

nnenna.1:
Hahaha at the misplaced advice from the non-Igbos here!

I can bet that these folks are indigenes of backward, poverty-stricken villages and towns. Hypocrites offering their baseless opinions.

Yes Igboland is underdeveloped. I agree.

But is Igboland is the reason why ALL OF NIGERIA has a low GDP per capita, low HDI, abysmal healthcare and social amenities, zero pensions, horrible social infrastructure?

Or is the Igbo brand of underdevelopment different from what we see in Delta, Kogi, Osun, Ondo, Benue, Adamawa, Katsina, Sokoto, Bayelsa, that it has to be discussed and analyzed in isolation?

LMFAO!

geeez:

On the average, the SE states get more from the centre than they contribute to it

The same goes for the entire north

Only the SW and SS receive less from the centre than they contribute to it

Chima_Agbalajob:


Your idea of let all states build what they like and develop at their own pace is not bad if resources were limitless. Unfortunately, in the real world, we have limited resources which must be used to achieve the most good. A major reason Nigeria failed to develop like Malaysia and Singapore in spite of being ahead of those countries in 1960 and having more resources than them is exactly your mindset of repeating useless projects everywhere in every hamlet,while the real things begging to be built as power plants and heavy industries are labeled "oyibo projects" > Imagine that Nigeria spent a whopping $300 billion dollars to build a useless new capital city they called Abuja, instead of building their industrial and agricultural base which would have ensured Nigeria became an industrialized world power, with very high standard of living seen in developed countries.

Imo airport was actually conceived when Nigeria had a 19 states structure and Imo was the ONLY of the 19 states without an airport. Thus, people who designed and built that airport had the current Abia state in mind as their catchment area for passengers.

Of course, Anambra is also free to build airports at Otuocha, just as someday, Adada state will build its own international cargo airport at Adani, so that they won't use the airport at Enugu or Otuocha. If you look at the distances on the map, it is less than 40km apart.If you lived in Long Island, New York, to drive to the airpot JFK its actually more than 63 kilometers trip. Yet New York state has not built another airport at Long Island,even though just their fire department budget $55 Billion dollars is almost double the entire Nigerian budget.

Believe me, i was one of those that had pressed for the completion of Oba airport or the construction of another one due to major design flaw and erosion prone area of then Oba airport. I had written Ngige when he was Governor in 2003 on the issue of Onitsha or Oba airport completion, which he totally ignored then and even made representations to Gov. Obi shortly after he won the court battle in 2006 via Prof. Chinyere Okunna on the need for an airport at Onitsha for the business community or complete the Oba airport. Then, they rightly pointed out that one was soon to be constructed at Asaba and which could serve the Onitsha community if it happened soon, which will save the Anambra meager resources to be deployed into saving the other sectors of the state which had entirely collapsed then. True to that prediction,Asaba airport project was flagged off and constructed within a reasonable period by the wealthier Delta state. Thus, all the pressure groups doing battle with big transporters who had frustrated any airport project around Onitsha rested our case.

Therefore, in my opinion, an another airport in Onitsha isn't an economic priority right now. What Anambra should focus on is how to complete the refinery at Otuocha,build the IPP planned there, and make sure the IPP generates enough power at least 1000MW to serve Anambra and neighboring states. Willie Obiano spoke like a true wise man who understood what had to be done when he made 4 critical areas of need his 4 point agenda of development to improve commerce,oil,gas & power, agriculture and transport modernization. Anambra must build a monorail transport system to connect Onitsha main market to outer fringes of the town such as Nkpo, Awada,Omaba, and even up to Oba to nnewi.Kano,Lagos and Onitsha were 3 cities in Nigeria recommended for a monorail system in 1986, which the FG never built. Since the concerned states such as Lagos are now building such modern transport infrastructure without FG support, Anambra must find money to build it without depending on FG to do it.

Again, the SE governments should liaise and build light railway lines to connect Onitsha,Abakaliki and Owerri to the PH to Enugu railway line. The vision should be to make it possible to transport yams,rice etc by rail from Abakaliki to Onitsha and onto Aba and pick up industrial goods from Aba back to Abakaliki, without ever riding on roads.This is easily achievable especially with the small landmass of the SE if we had rulers in the SE who thought outside the box and outside the this is my village,my LGA or my state mentality.These would make transportation and movement of goods from markets within the zone cheap and easy. Now if they claim they don't have the money to build all these critical infrastructure necessary for the future and true industrial take off of the zone, why should they waste the little resources they have to embark on repetition of ego projects like airport everywhere just to compete with the ones in nearby states?

nnenna.1:
Hahaha at the misplaced advice from the non-Igbos here!

I can bet that these folks are indigenes of backward, poverty-stricken villages and towns. Hypocrites offering their baseless opinions.

Yes Igboland is underdeveloped. I agree.

But is Igboland is the reason why ALL OF NIGERIA has a low GDP per capita, low HDI, abysmal healthcare and social amenities, zero pensions, horrible social infrastructure?

Or is the Igbo brand of underdevelopment different from what we see in Delta, Kogi, Osun, Ondo, Benue, Adamawa, Katsina, Sokoto, Bayelsa, that it has to be discussed and analyzed in isolation?

LMFAO!

Chima_Agbalajob:

I think Afam started this thread to proffer solutions and generate ideas.

We know those bad belle people located west of our border will always be jealous and want to "advise" us, when they have no advise for their useless homeland filled with juju. Apart from Boko Haram, northern Nigeria has the best cities in Nigeria. Have you ever seen someone migrating to Ogbomoso or even Abeokuta? Their zone is the worst poverty stricken deprived area of west Africa, but they will always jump up to advise people better than them.

I suggest we ignore their usual bad belle to deviate us from real issues.