A Democracy inclined Non-Governmental Organization-Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has lamented the unprecedented situation of underdevelopment and the rapidly declining standard of health and other basic amenities in the entire South Eastern States.
The group therefore, called on the people to put their governors and Houses of Assemblies under intense scrutiny and pressure to transparently account for how the huge financial resources that accrued to these states from the Federation accounts in the last four years have been deployed.
HURIWA has also called on President Goodluck Jonathan to practically introduce federal government projects in the South East in the spirit of equity and social justice just as the group lamented that the acclaimed revolutionary achievements reportedly made in the agricultural sector has not impacted on the lives of farmers in the South East particularly with the over concentration of multibillion dollar projects of the agricultural and water resources ministries such as dams in the Northern parts of Nigeria with total lack of any major agriculture and water resources project in the South East. HURIWA said the state governments in the South East have failed spectacularly to effectively partner with the agricultural and water resources ministries to attract major projects to the South East even as HURIWA warned that the region may face the challenge of food insecurity in no distant time from now if emergency measures are not activated to ameliorate the systemic neglect.
The Rights group warned that the widespread apathy and less- than- impressive passive interest by the people of the South East in the affairs of state in their region is responsible for the widespread poverty and the collapse of strategic infrastructure in these states even as the body demanded that the state governments in the South East must utilize the enormous resources derived from the federation account and the Internally Generated Revenue outlets within the South East to pragmatically and comprehensively rebuild the declining state of primary health care and roads infrastructure afflicting most towns and villages around the South East just as it warned that should this unpardonable level of gross underdevelopment and criminal neglect continues then in the coming few months the South East may witness mass exodus of the youthful workforce to other climes in search of the greener pastures particularly since good governance has died down in the South Eastern Nigeria.
In a statement signed jointly by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf, the HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA [HURIWA] said her findings from a three days on the spot assessment of state of facilities in the five south East states of Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo, Anambra and Abia shows that contrary to the position by some international bodies such as the United Nations agencies operating from Abuja the capital of Nigeria to the effect that poverty is less in the South East states, HURIWA said the field visits embarked upon by a strong ten man team from its organization has proven that there is widespread mass poverty afflicting all ages and that the youth and the aged are the worst affected. HURIWA also asserted that the declining state of primary health care facilities coupled with the unbelievable state of poor rural roads networks in the South Eastern states have led to the untimely demise of hundreds of poor rural inhabitants before any meaningful help can reach them.
On the heightened state of insecurity in the South Eastern states, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA [HURIWA] asserted that men and officers of the Nigerian Police Force working in most parts of the South East states have abandoned their constitutional and traditional roles of protecting the lives and property of the citizenry and the enforcement of the rule of law and have now embraced the devilry of setting up of multiple bribes collecting checkpoints on all the major roads whereby these gun wielding operatives of the Nigerian Police Force are constantly harassing the citizenry and compellingly extorting varying amounts of bribes from them as toll fees to use the roads.
The group has therefore asked President Good luck Jonathan to direct the Inspector General of Police Suleiman Abba to retrain the men and officers of the Nigerian Police Force to be more professional in their assignments and for the management of the Nigerian Police Force to instil transparent and effective disciplinary measures to expose, name and shame the bad eggs amongst the Nigerian Police Force who have constituted themselves into public nuisance and threats to the lives and property of the citizenry in the South East and other parts of Nigeria.
HURIWA stated thus; ”The governments and people of the South East region must design fool- proof pro-active security measures to secure their environment from unwarranted attacks by hoodlums and terrorists and also to set up workable machinery and mechanisms for the effective operation of community wide vigilante groups to keep people and property safe from violent attacks of kidnappers and armed hoodlums. Institutionally, South East must partner with leading private sector operators to activate pro-active security measures to keep people safe from any attacks of the armed enemies from within and without. The people of the South East must not continue to fold their arms without taking any effective security measures only to wait for a bad incident to happen before taking action. The best approach to keeping the environment safe is for the residents ad government officials including the law enforcement agents to be actively involved in intelligence gathering and also to prevent crimes from happening in the first place even as measures must be put in place to resolve any crime incident as soon as they are reported. Nigeria must resolve now to establish well armed state police to compliment the role of the national policing institution.”
