SPRING BEYOND LIMITS: CATALYSING SOCIO-ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION OF SOUTH-EAST, NIGERIA

SPRING BEYOND LIMITS: CATALYSING SOCIO-ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION OF SOUTH-EAST, NIGERIA by Prof. Benjamin Chuka Osisioma

The Igbos of the South-East, once a proud, dynamic, enterprising and forthright people, were easily the best bureaucrats, the most enlightened officer corps, excellent in academic pursuit, and dominant in the commanding heights of the nation’s economy. That was the birthright and pedigree that defined the Igbo nation in the past. Today, the people seem to be inflicted with a dreadful genre of the resource curse, otherwise known as ‘the Gehazi spirit’, which threatens the foundations of decency and morality in the land. Ndi Igbo must learn a lesson from the Jews. Victimised, brutalized and traumatised by most societies where they lived, the Jews learnt to turn adversity to advantage; their challenges became their biggest competitive advantage. The South-East is today an orphan in Nigeria, with no one to speak or canvass for the zone. The people must unite in an Economic Bloc, establish a Think Tank for the Igbo nation, build River and Sea Ports, put in place an Industrial Belt to straddle the five States in the zone, establish a Research Village that reconnects with the technological feats of the Civil War days, and create an Empowerment and Capacity Building Programme to raise the youths to a position of pride