ThinkEast, a socio-political organisation, has challenged the people of Southeast and South-South Nigeria to invest back home to develop the two regions, and make it the industrial hub of Nigeria.
In a statement signed by its chairman, Prince Azubuike Uwandu, and made available to the Press in Abuja, yesterday, the body urged the people of the old eastern region to invest in the areas of infrastructure, Information Communications Technology (ICT), property and manufacturing in Eastern Nigeria.
“We in ThinkEast, we are calling on all Ndigbo in the North and their South-South brothers to think home. We want them to invest at home in the areas of infrastructure, ICT, rail-connectivity and in property. This is the way to boost the industrialization of the two regions”
“With determination the people of Southeast and South-South have the capacity to make the region an industrial hub of the country and doing so will curtail the exodus of the people of Southeast and South-South to Northern and Western Nigeria, respectively.
ThinkEast challenged the state governments and people of Southeast to pool their resources together to dredge the Oguta Lake and River Niger respectively, as the two waters are not far from the Atlantic Ocean.
“The distance from Oguta Lake to the Atlantic ocean is just 18 nautical miles. This is doable. Whether the federal government wants it or not, we should do it so that goods manufactured in Nnewi and Aba can be moved out through the international waters for exports.
“The moment we have our own sea port, we have our rail, there will be lots of cottage industries in the Southeast and that would result to creation of thousands of jobs and tremendous increase in the IGR of the states of old eastern region”
The statement noted that the wealth of Lagos state that boasts of high internally generated revenue was because of the vast contributions of the Igbos resident and doing businesses in Lagos state.”
On the need to provide basic foundation for the development of Southeast and South south, ThinkEast further challenged the Universities and Polytechnics in the regions to embark on various researches that would assist in the manufacturing of goods and services, required for the human and material prosperity of the two regions. Emphasis should be on education.
“This is why we are against the use of the Joint Admission Matriculation Board examinations (JAMB) to determine who is qualified and admitted into the Nigerian Universities. We prefer the American and British systems whereby if you have good results you walk into a University you can afford with your certificate and seek for admission.
“The current system is denying thousands of students from the Southeast from attending the Universities due to wide discrepancies in the nation’s university admission policies.
The body, said it favours regional government and wants Nigeria to be restructured along the six geo-political zones.
“Let Nigeria be restructured along the six geopolitical zones so that each region would develop at their own pace. We want full regional government, the statement concluded.”
