CHIEF (SIR) DON UBANI; KSC JP[b][/b]
(Okwubunka of Asa) Umuiku-Isi-Asa Ukwa-West
E-mail: Ubanidon@yahoo.com
P.M.B. 7048, Aba
Phone: 08035523360
AUGUST 9, 2015.

SURMOUNTABLE OBSTACLES AGAINST SOUTH-EAST REGIONAL ECONOMIC INTEGRATION
SCRIPTED BY CHIEF (SIR) DON UBANI

The word ‘nation’ has often been misconstrued, misinterpreted and misapplied when used in Nigeria. Even amongst the elites, many refer to Nigeria as a nation whereas it is a state. It, therefore, becomes necessary that the two words, nation and state, are aptly defined in order to make the difference clear. In this wise, a nation is a large community of people identifiable with common territorial boundaries, united by a single indigenous language and usually having a common political character or political aspirations. Arising from this definition, the Igbo is a nation of its own, just as the Hausa, Yoruba, Ijaw, Efik and others in this definitive category are nations. There could be many nations in a country, just as it is obtainable in Nigeria. As for state, Duhaime’s Law Dictionary defines it as groups of people which have acquired international recognition as an independent country and which have a population that has adopted a common language for effective communication.
From the above definition, it is clear that the South-East geo-political zone is a nation of its own. Other Igbo-speaking groups such as the Asa, Etche, Ikwerre, Ndoki, Omuma and Opobo in Rivers State and Ika-Ibo in Delta State, as well as other Igbo-speaking people in states outside the South-East of Nigeria do not, by contextual definition, belong to the South-East nation due to contemporary political cum administrative realities.
As a nation and people bound together by a common experience, destiny and aspiration, the people of the South-East of Nigeria, made up of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo States should, at any given time, see themselves as one indivisible group. To the glory of God, more than ninety percent of the people of the Zone are Christians, while the remaining ten percent or even less may be shared by other religions believers. There is hardly any heathen in the zone, as even the traditional religious worshippers strongly believe in the existence and supremacy of Chukwu Abiama. According to some versions of history, the Tyndale New Testament of the Holy Bible was the first edition of the Bible to be printed and that was between 1525 and 1526. The chronological gap between when the first edition of the Bible was printed and date is only about four hundred and ninety years. But on the hand, the Igbo had been in Nigeria for more than one thousand and five hundred years. They have always used Chukwu Abiama in all their religious rituals. For those who do not know, the Igbo are among the Jews in the Diaspora. There is no ethnic group in Nigeria that did not migrate from somewhere. Chukwu Abiama, as believed in and worshipped by the Igbo, epitomises the supreme Deity that Abraham acknowledged its existence, believed in, worshipped and was made to prosper beyond human imagination. By simple analogy, Chukwu is God while Abiama is Abraham. The Igbo are descendants of Abraham and are, therefore, Jews. This fact had long been expatiated by globally acknowledged and respected historians such as; (1) Olauda Equiano, (2) Professor Kenneth Onwubiko Dike, (3) Professor Adele Afigbo and (4) Carlisle U.O. Umunna whose publication on Nigeria village Square; an online medium, is a reference source.
Since the Igbo have a common descendant, and taking into deep consideration what they have gone through in the Nigerian state, they should not fail to love themselves. The worst thing a nation can do against itself is to hate itself. It would be recalled that the Igbo came into contact with the Western Civilization many years, even decades, after their Yoruba counterparts. Despite this gap in civilizational contact, the Igbo, as at January 1966, were evidently in domination in almost all the facets of the Nigerian polity; politics, economy, education, civil and public services, the military and para-military. There was hardly any sector the Igbo was not prominently involved in during Nigeria’s first Republic.
The Igbo leaders of colonial and first republican era were philosophically committed to leadership, which simply amounted to service-delivery and communal development. Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Mazi Mbaonu Ojike, Dr Francis Akanu Ibiam, Dr. M. I. Okpara, Dr. Alvan Ikokwu, Dr Nwafor Orizu, Dr Jaja Wachuku, Dr. K. O. Mbadiwe, O.C. Ememe and other Igbo leaders of their generation substantially placed emphasis on education, health, agriculture and infrastructure. The very dedicated and patriotic Igbo Union was ever there to complement what the Eastern Regional Government was doing in education. The Native Authorities were given maximum encouragement to provide critical services in the grass-roots. Many rural roads in the defunct Eastern Nigeria were not tarred yet any motor driver that wanted to be on speed, could cruise at a regular speed of fifty kilometres per hour, without having any cause to change gear as the roads had zero pot-holes. The Igbo of the first Republic of Nigeria occupied very enviable positions at the federal level. The Presidency, though ceremonial, was occupied by Nnamdi Azikiwe, an Igbo. The first Speaker of the Nigerian Parliament was Dr. Jaja Anucha Wachuku, an Igbo. The Exploits of the Igbo in Nigeria’s colonial and post-colonial era were intimidating. The first indigenous Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan was Professor K.O. Dike. Justice Charles Dadi Onyeama had acted as Chief Justice of the High Court of Lagos sometime in 1962 when the substantive Chief Justice of Lagos in the person of Justice De Lestang was away in Britain for leave. By July 1964, Justice Charles Dadi Onyeama had become a substantive Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. The Head of the Nigeria Army was Major-General Aguiyi Ironsi. The first indigenous Nigerian University graduate to enlist into the Nigerian Army was Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu. The richest Nigerian millionaire, as collaborated by Emeka Etiaba on Thisday Newspaper of October 9, 2010 was Sir Louis Odimegwu Ojukwu, as at January 1966. He was the first indigenous President of the Nigerian Stock Exchange and was Chairman or Director of many blue-chip Companies in Nigeria. He was profitably involved in many sectors of the Nigerian economy, videlicet; transport, estate, banking, export, and import. When Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh visited Nigeria in 1956, it was only Sir Ojukwu that had a Rolls-Royce in Nigeria and he graciously made it available to the colonial government and the Queen and the Duke were majestically and glamorously driven in the car by Sir Ojukwu’s personal driver; Abiefo. But all the mileages gained by the Igbo were lost as a result of the Nigerian/Biafran war.
The igbo narrative has been sharply a different one since after the civil war. The collective principle that was the underlying force that made the Igbo a rare specie has ceased to be evident in their communal existence. At the end of the war in January 1970, the Igbo saw themselves being administered in one state; East central state. From 1976 when they were split into two states by the Murtala Mohammad Military administration; Anambra and Imo States, segregation and discrimination crept into the body politic of the Igbo. The zone currently has five states, Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo, though they should have, at least, one more state. So far, governors of these states have not been, in any way, concerned about the needed unity of the Igbo as a nation. All the economic ventures that they inherited from the government of the defunct Eastern Region, ventures that should have been sources of unity and strength, they recklessly allowed to be driven into oblivion. The Niger cement at Nkalagu in present Ebonyi State, the Emenite Limited and Project Development Institute (PRODA) at Enugu, the Golden Guinea Breweries and Ceramic Industry at Umuahia, the Textile Mills at Aba and Onitsha, the Universal Insurance Company, Hotels owned by the former government of Eastern Nigeria, including Hotel Presidential Enugu and Phonix Hotels Enugu, Co-operative and Commerce Bank and the very gigantic African Continental Bank; A.C.B; should, by now, have been institutions the Igbo would have been sure to leverage upon. But they were left to become moribund, with a good number of them collapsing. Today, nothing in common, other than Jamboree, holds the people of the South-East together. To buttress the extent to which the Igbo now segregate and discriminate amongst themselves, some parochial state governors, not too long ago, forcefully and inhumanly disengaged public servants in their states who are Igbo of other states’ extraction. This primitive and uncivilized action was the last straw that broke the carmel’s back. The worst of it all, many Igbo leaders, especially governors in the last democratic dispensation proved, by their conduct in office, to be extremely greedy, with many of them looting their states almost completely dry. Infrastructural decay became synonymous with some states in the region and, therefore, grounded their economies to a halt. The South-East has witnessed an unprecedented leadership failure due to greed and lack of vision in the type of governors they have had.
This very unfortunate and debilitating situation should not be allowed to continue. The present five governors should live above the parochialism of leadership that was evident in the recent past. Political Party differences should rather than weaken Igbo cohesion, serve as strength for Igbo unity and progress. The governors, among other things, could initiate and execute a regional railway line that can link the five state capitals in the region. This will certainly boost the economy of the zone. They could go further addressing the economic problems of the region by building industrial clusters in partnership with the private sector. The issue of electricity can be collectively tackled by the state governments of the region. Much has been given and much is expected from the governors and legislators of the Igbo Nation. Every hand must be on deck for the economic integration of the South-East.

Chief (Sir) Don Ubani.

Well said,if they can take the message

Sane mind i hope they will not call him mumu for giving them this wonderful advice.