…Seeks release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to solve insecurity in Southeast
…Urges FG to declare state of emergency on federal roads in southern Nigeria
The Southern Solidarity Alliance, SSA, a pan-Southern Nigeria group has expressed its total misgivings against what it called the “unacceptable deplorable situations” that members found themselves as Southern Nigerians.
The group in a press conference in Lagos on Thursday, not only rejected those situations, it also called on all those concerned to make a redress adding that “we strongly reject and repudiate inequity, unfairness, crude manipulations, injustice, suppression, oppression, subjugation and atrocious discrimination, vital aggressions in our homelands and fatherland and overriding subterranean, piloted divisiveness among ourselves in the affairs of our nation.
The group further opined that the Southerners did not deserve those treatments and the reality of second, third or even no class citizens in the affairs of the country.
Speaking during the press conference, the National Coordinator of the Southern Solidarity Alliance, Mr. Ndubuisi Okafor drew the attention of the global community in general and the federal and state governments in particular to the problems, most of them institutionalized and perpetuated against the south.
These, according to Okafor include deplorable State of the federal roads in southern Nigeria, Census which he said was unjustifiably manipulated against the south, structural imbalance, insecurity, marginalization of the South in the ownership and control of resources as well as quota system and conscious marginalization of the south in federal institutions including the civil service, military, police and paramilitary institutions.
He, however, demanded declaration of a state of emergency on Ipele – Isua road, Benin – Auchi road, Nsukka – Enugu road, Sagamu – Ore road, Ore – Benin road, Onitsha – Owerri – Aba road, Enugu – Onitsha Expressway, Enugu – Port-Harcourt Expressway, Umuahia – Akwa-Ibom road, Uyo – Calabar road, Enugu – Lokpanta road, 9th Mile – Opi Junction – Obollo Afor – Makurdi road, Amichi – Ezinifite – Amaruru – Ihitenansa – Orlu road, Ibadan – Ife – Ilesha bypass, Ife – Ondo – Ore road and Ughelli – Patani – Port-Harcourt road among others.
The National Coordinator maintained that national census which according to him, was a planning instrument, was unjustifiably manipulated against the south even as he noted that it’s only in Nigeria that the coastal areas have become less populated than the hinterlands of the same country. Observing that this apparent manipulation had undermined the south, he, therefore, called for a credible census to be conducted in Nigeria to correct the glaring imbalance.
Insisting that there was obvious skewing of the state and local government structures in disfavour of the South, Mr. Okafor called for a comprehensive addressing of the imbalance between the north and the south and for true federalism to be practiced in the country. ” LG cannot access federal allocation in a true federal state and actually, there should really be nothing to share, everyone should be productive”, he remarked.
Going forward, he advocates for security to be technologically driven like in other countries of the world adding that population data and fingerprinting technology as well as CCTVs should be deployed by all the southern states.
“Multilevel policing should be introduced. Governments – federal, state and local government should be seen to be just. Economy should be improved through practical measures. Equity, fairness and justice must be seen to prevail.
“The insecurity in the Southeast should be specially looked into. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in order to guarantee peace in the zone. Is there anything the federal government, state or any individual is gaining from holding him and continued tension and killings in that Zone?”, he queried.
Maintaining that resources even in the south were manipulated out of the control of the south especially as it concerned petroleum and port resources, the SSA boss called for resource control as embedded in an unfettered federalism saying, “Nigeria is gifted resource wise, every federating unit should develop and tap own resources while paying to the center.”
He insisted that quota system and federal character should be totally scrapped as against the prevailing selective implementation.
“It should be replaced with pure merit and competitiveness. Merit system based on competitiveness is key to development and should be instituted in every facet. Nigeria should stop picking where to implement quota system and federal character which have overtime undermined development in the South and Nigeria as a whole. Whereas appointment into offices still become quotarized, it must be sweeping but competitive tests are elevational for stakeholders”, he said.
He, therefore, called on the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government to implement the 2014 national Confab report, which he said was a product of negotiation among delegates from all the geo-political regions of the country insisting that the report had answers to several ills bedeviling this country.
“In an alternative, there should be a convocation of a sovereign national conference to cure all ills and remedy all imbalances. We dare say that it is the delay or refusal in towing this oath of honour in the whole Implementation of this report and genuine holistic implementation of restructuring that has created bestial problems in the south and Nigeria, from poverty to corruption, from abandonment of infrastructure to lack of development, from over centralization of power and authority, abuse if power to general insecurity.
“The establishment elites of this country, Nigeria should really that they have held the south and Nigeria to the ground for too long. The enveloping Hobbesian world must be avoided so that there could be prosperity and comprehensive development in the south and Nigeria as a whole. We are impatient with the under-developement and wish to be at par with the rest of the world”, Mr. Okafor concluded.
Photo: Mr. Ndubuisi Okafor, National Coordinator, Southern Solidarity Alliance, SSA (middle) flanked by other executive of the group during the press conference in Lagos Thursday.
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