By Onyinyechi Kanu
An estate surveyor of repute and the convener of ‘Ala Igbo’ Development Agenda ESV Chief Sam Anokam has called on the Igbo nation to realise themselves and focus on development of Igbo land and stop looking sideways because nobody is going to help us, he made this statement while addressing the press over the weekend on a new vision of ‘Ala Igbo’ development agenda.
Chief Anokam has said that the former governor of Anambra State, His Excellency Mr Peter obi and everything that happened during the last election has brought the matter to the fore clearly that the Igbos are hated. Mr Peter obi did not run as an Igbo man, he did his politics as a Nigeria and never have we seen in the history of Nigeria this kind of rigging with impunity.
Continuing, Chief Anokam averred that, it is high time that Igbos should go back and rediscover themselves, we have all that we require to stand as a body, we have intellectuals we have both mineral and material resources, but the issue is that, we have been too individualistic in our lifestyle, we have not been carrying ourselves along, no sense of Unity.
He recalled that what broke Igbo was States creation, because South East in those days was the fastest-growing economy in the eastern region before wars and state creation broke us apart and we started thinking about individual state development.
” It is high time for us to come together and form ‘Ala Igbo’ development agenda. Let us depart from the word ‘Biafra” because Biafra reminds us of the killings, maiming and destruction of Igbo people. Let’s think of something new that will bring us together as Igbo people and make us forge ahead in unity for our common development as a nation in Nigeria nation”.
” Let us begin to discover ourselves, the governors of the States not minding political parties should come together and think about creating an agenda for the development of “Ala Igbo’. The governors of the south-east should come together, bring in their experts in all fields to create a new government and embrace these Development Agenda, while we still recognise our individual State area. This should be a development that will cut across all the States with a design of master plan for the development of Igbo nation. This will be a development of Igbo nation, where all attractions in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja, will be located here such as industries, business areas, entertainment centres, and so on and there will be a development of superhighways across the Igbo Nations to link up across the state easily and create new centres for population settlement”.
He suggested that if governors are too busy with politics and may not have time for this, they should give the assignment to their deputies.
He was optimistic that when ‘Ala Igbo’ is developed, our young men and women will not be moving to other parts of the country, but stay here and help develop our place, and not find themselves in these other region where they are not valued or acepted and are being hostile towards them.
In our objective of realising the ‘Ala Igbo’ development agenda, we will make sure that Enugu International Airport and Imo cargo airport is realised and seaport around Uguta. When we access all these things, what else are we looking for in Lagos? What happened in Lagos against Igbo people in this last election is something any Igbo man who feels concern should be worried about. The way we were being disgrace as though we have done something wrong. “Go back to your home” but we the Igbos developed that place.
He opined that “Igbo men are feet dragging and looking back about leaving these hostile areas because of their assets, but government should find out from professional how these assets of the Igbos in those hostile areas can be managed”.
He asserts that “when we develop this agenda, our people in National Assembly will take this agenda as their focus of drive in the National Assembly, where ‘Ala Igbo’ projects will be their constituency projects, and by the time we develop this project other parts of the nation will know that the Igbos have opened their eyes, they will now gladly embrace us and value us”.
“Both Southerners and Northerners think that is their place that have blessed the Igbo man, without knowing that is the Igbo man that develop their place, and that Igbo man has the capacity to develop his own place too, and by the time we return and develop our place, I don’t know who else that will compete with us”.
He explained that the development of ‘Ala Igbo’ goes beyond stipends from Federal Government, our people in diaspora must be keyed in this agenda, they can attract Foreign Development Investments in this agenda, this is only if the south-east governors will take it serious. This address in fact, is for south eastern governors, to come and take a cue to this and launch it. “The Regional Development of ‘Ala Igbo’.
He emphasized that when we were together as a region, we did better, but now we are scattered as States, we are seeing something different. We never saw insecurity at this level when we were together as a region, but now we are seeing insecurity all over the place. It is important to know that this is our place, it is important we put all hands on deck to ensure we set up an agenda and give ourselves 25 years development master plan, within the 25 years, obviously will see something different.
Let this recent action against the Igbos become a re wakening of consciousness, let us not think of fighting anybody, let us not think about the concept of realizing Biafra, let’s think differently towards the development of our place, in the context of Nigeria Nation. This is an agenda for all, both for our people in the National Assembly and the South-eastern Governors.
Igbo people are very strong, by the time we come together, we will see how strong we are, but in this case is directing our strength towards the development of our place, not development of their area. Developing other people’s area had increased their land value, and by the time we withdraw from there, the land value will fall. our people in diaspora are waiting to see Igbo land that is ripe for development. And if our people focus on development, both young and old, insecurity will be a thing of the past, because every young man is engaged with something meaningful.
