What we now call the SE of Nigeria was created 52 years ago without the FG consulting anyone in the East Central state as it was called at the time. I repeat,not one single person I know was consulted.
That was the original exclusion not the recent development at the National Assembly.
For 8 years, between May 1967 to May 1975, there was no single person from the SE in the federal cabinet. Am I correct? That is the equivalent of 2 tenures .That was exclusion.
There was a time in the early 70s that adults living in the SE must apply to the federal government for a pass if they want to move from Enugu to Abakaliki, from Owerri to Aba,from Nsukka to Onitsha or anywhere in the SE according to historian;Dr Chukwuma Opata.I think it was similar to the pass given to Blacks in South Africa to visit Johannesburg or other townships under Apartheid. That was exclusion.
I don’t want to talk about the federal government’s Abandoned Properties policy but despite all this initial exclusion, restrictions etc,the SE was able to integrate itself with the rest of Nigeria within 8 years.By 1977, foreign reporters were already writing that “people from the region has taken over the sprawling FESTAC township in the federal capital territory of Lagos” which at the time was the newest symbol of Nigeria’s petrol wealth.
I am not chestbeating, please.I am sorry for drawing this kind of reference to drive home this point.What you all need is a thriving economy not NASS or federal appointments,so stop whining.
What you need is a focused leadership in the SE.
There is another instance when the colonial government said they could not find a single Igbo man to represent them in the Nigerian Legislative Council in 1931. They couldn’t find one single person that was qualified so they chose CMS missionary Rev George T Basden who was resident in Awka at the time to represent the Igbo. Basden had earlier brilliantly testified at the inquiry set up to probe the massacre of women during the women’s war of 1929,a.k.a Aba Women Riot.
Basden remained the Igbo representative at the Nigerian Legislative Council from 1931-1937 according to professor Dmitri van den Bersselaar
Anyway, Zik returned from America through Ghana in 1937 and the rest was history.Within 20 years of Zik’s return he obtained self rule for his people and moved his his folks from having no qualified person to represent them in the National Assembly equivalent at the time to leading the legislative house by producing the first native Nigerian speaker of the House of Representatives in Jaja Nwachukwu.
The path to sociopolitical and economic freedom is seen in your journey so far.
Check your history.
This article was written by Mbe Nwaniga