An elder statesman and two time Commissioner in Abia State, Chief Charles Ogbonnaya, has canvassed massive support for the South East Development Commission (SEDI) as a catalyst towards the rebuilding of the entire region.
He said the Commission which bill was sponsored by the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt Hon Benjamin Kalu and recently passed by the House was the first concrete effort to address the degradation in the southeast occasioned by the civil war.
Chief Ogbonnaya who spoke to newsmen in Umuahia expressed disappointment that both governors and other political leaders in the region were not showing enough support towards the take off of the commission.
According to him, given the developmental challenges in the southeast, especially in road infrastructure, the commission was needed for the rapid improvement in development.
He noted that the philosophy of the commission was in tandem with Late Dr Michael Okpara’s development agenda encapsulated on prime document establishing Eastern Nigeria Development Corporation (ENDC).
He noted that under Okpara ‘s ENDC, cocoa farms,rubber and palm plantations were established and run by the government.
He also listed Metropolitan Hotel at Calabar,Presidential hotels in Enugu and Port Harcourt,as well as Golden Guinea Breweries and Ceramics factory in Umuahia as other industries set up by Dr Okpara under ENDC.
The elder statesman argued that the support of the political leaders in the southeast was necessary to drive the commission through the intervention of the Federal government.
According to him, the deputy speaker was proactive in sponsoring the bill given the level of infrastructural decay in the southeast since after the war.
Chief Ogbonnaya said a synergy was now necessary to ensure that the federal government in collaboration with the states in the South East fund the rebuilding of the infrastructure in the region.
” I believe that Hon Benjamin Kalu has presented us a golden opportunity to rebuild the southeast which was ravaged by the civil war. I believe all of us have to come together to make it possible by putting pressure on the federal government to do the needful”, he said.
The former Abia commissioner stressed the need for massive support for the commission in view of the much expected developmental programme before it.
