On February 22, 2024, the Senate passed the South-East Development Commission, SEDC, Bill, thus concurring a similar action already taken in the House of Representatives sequel to the Bill's initiation by Hon. Benjamin Kalu (APC Bende Federal Constituency, Abia).
It is safe to assume that the Bill is on the desk of President Bola Tinubu, awaiting assent. We hope the already four-month delay is in lieu of taking other necessary actions to solve the peculiar and pending problems of the South-East and the Igbo nation within the Nigerian commonwealth.
The South-East, which used to be East Central State, one of the original 12 states created by General Yakubu Gowon, was the core theatre of the Nigerian Civil War. It was the only part of Nigeria that the 30-month hostilities between the Federal and Biafran sides were fully expended. Most of the other parts of the country only heard about the war over the radio or read it on the pages of the newspapers.
The zone and its people were totally devastated. The hundreds of massive gully erosion sites which are still tearing through the zone were chiefly initiated by the amount of destructive ordnance dumped in that tiny enclave by both sides of the belligerence. Unfortunately, the declaration of Reconstruction, Reconciliation and Rehabilitation, RRR, was largely on paper, as the people had to pick themselves up from ground zero to where they are today.
The South-East is definitely an unfinished business of the Nigerian Civil War. The South East Development Commission, SEDC, initiative should be seen as just one of the various steps Nigeria must take to close the 54-year-old injury it inflicted on itself due to its poor management of our diversity which continues till today.
Only the President of Nigeria can lead the effort to heal the South-East of the wounds of the Civil War. Anything else will be a mere play to the gallery. We urge President Tinubu to be that leader who ended the Civil War that continued to rage in the hearts of Nigerians long after the shooting ended on January 15, 1970.
Apart from signing the SEDC Bill, the president should also facilitate the ongoing efforts to create one more state in the South-East and integrate it as the sixth state of the South-East for geopolitical balancing with the rest of the zones. More Federal constituencies and local government areas should also be created to further the sense of equity needed to end perceived Igbo marginalisation.
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Also, the President should take the extended hand for dialogue, release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from detention and the discontinuance of his prosecution.
These will not only bring closure to the war, they will also greatly douse the separatist agitations in that part of the country.
