Leon Usigbe reports on the recent visit of South-East delegation, led by former Vice-President, Dr Alex Ekwueme, to the Presidential Villa to table a list of demands before President Goodluck Jonathan who promised to justify the confidence the zone reposed in him during the April presidential election.Leaders of South-East, led by former Vice-President, Dr Alex Ekwueme, were in the Presidential Villa, last week, to meet President Goodluck Jonathan. With Ekwueme were Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekeremadu; Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha; governors of South-East states, including notable political, community and religious leaders from the zone. All ministers of Igbo extraction were also present at the event which took place in the briefing room of the Presidential Villa.The Igbo leaders said they were there to congratulate the President for his landslide victory in last April's presidential election and to assure him of the continued support of the people of the South-East who voted massively for him during that election. In a speech, read on behalf of Ekwueme by Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State, they praised Jonathan for the candor and dynamism he has applied in piloting the affairs of the nation so far. The Igbo leaders were grateful that Jonathan had appointed a number of Igbos into his cabinet, including the Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator Ayim Pius Ayim, and the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. But they seized the opportunity to remind him of the many other promises he made to the region which they wanted Jonathan to fulfill. Chief of these is the second Niger Bridge over which they commended Jonathan for his courage to cancel the contract earlier.'We wish to respectfully remind you of your consistent assurances to our people during your campaign that the second Niger Bridge is one project you must deliver during your tenure,' they told the president.The Igbo leaders harped on the construction of this bridge because 'it will not only enhance commerce, trade and investment, but will inevitably boost the economy of the zone and that of the nation,' apart from serving as the main link between the South-East and other regions of the country. Similarly, they reminded the president of his directive to the Minister of Works to brief him on some other issues which included the Oferekpe-Obubra bridge to link Ebonyi and Cross River states.Also, they raised the question of the upgrading of Akanu Ibiam airport, Enugu to an international airport which, they said, they had previously discussed with the president. While they acknowledged that approval has been given for the job, the leaders added that their visit was to remind the president of his promise during his campaign that he would ensure that the Enugu airport was operational as an international airport within his four years in office.'As your Excellency has settled down to work in earnest, we request that this project be included in the priority list for immediate attention. Not oblivious of the financial implications of this project, we are fully aware of the constraints further delay on this important airport poses to our people with regard to their business activities,' the Igbo leaders argued. They did not forget the Sam Mbakwe airport which has been designated an international cargo airport. They want it to be upgraded accordingly.Another issue they brought before Jonathan was the devastating ecological problem in parts of the South-East. They said 'without fear of contradiction, the federal roads in the South-East zone remain the worst throughout the country. They are pitiable spectacles, evoking in our people a deep feeling of neglect and abandonment.'According to them, most of the roads have degenerated to gullies and death traps, but of great concern to them were the Enugu-Onitsha road, Enugu-Port Harcourt road, Enugu-Abakaliki road, Aba-Owerri road, Aba-Umuahia road, 9th Mile-Makurdi road, among others. Also of concern to them was the fact that some of the roads under construction were either awarded to shoddy contractors or were under-funded.'The quality of work already done bespeaks of this possibility. This, no doubt, has greatly affected both social and economic well-being of a long-suffering people,' Ekwueme told Jonathan, adding that the governors of the zone had had cause to intervene in some places to ameliorate the problem by reconstructing these roads.It was the desire of the South East leaders, therefore, for the Federal Government to strengthen the funding and supervision of the road contract or in the alternative, authorise the governors to do so and get reimbursed afterwards. They also spoke about Jonathan's commitment to ensure power generation in the country by building a 1,000 megawatts of coal-fired plant in Enugu and pledged the support of the people of the South-East towards its actualisation.The Igbo leaders did not also fail to express their desire to see the exploration of crude oil and gas deposits in states like Anambra, Ebonyi, and Enugu. 'The contention in some quarters that the crude oil in these states are kept as national strategic reserve has undoubtedly impacted negatively on the economy and financial profile of these states,' they posited, requesting the Federal Government to commission a comprehensive study of the Anambra Basin and commence the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbon deposits 'or make necessary financial accommodation for these states whose oil deposits have remained unexploited in spite of the fact that technological changes in the oil industry make their exploitation feasible.'Furthermore, they appealed to Jonathan: 'to intervene in this obvious case of denial, especially in the case of Abia State, acknowledged as an oil producing state, but whose oil wells were farmed out to neighbouring states with corresponding loss of revenue. Though the oil wells have been restored, the derivation royalties and other financial accruals are yet to be released.' The Igbo leaders wanted the Federal Government to commence the fourth Gas Central Processing zone in the Gas Master Plan as well as the reactivation of the Enugu Depot of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).President Jonathan's reaction to the litany of requests was first to warn that government would no longer tolerate shoddy jobs by contractors, that any contractor handling Federal Government projects who failed to live up to expectation would, henceforth, be blacklisted. Jonathan said government was looking at various options for the implementation of projects, adding that one of the major challenges facing the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, herself a South Easterner, was to ensure that there was a creative way to fund capital projects. Jonathan said he had already directed the Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen, to come up with a framework for the commencement of the implementation of the Second Niger Bridge to be delivered by 2015. And for the request on oil exploration, he assured that there were plans to begin oil exploration in the Chad Basin and Benue Trough and, therefore, there was no reason why the same would not be done in the Anambra Basin.Jonathan also remarked that conditions have been put in place to enable interested state governments to intervene in federal road projects and be reimbursed once the affected states satisfied such conditions.'In terms of state government intervening to get refunds from the central government, we discussed this even in the previous administration. That was why we set up a committee and worked out the blueprint from where a state government that wants to intervene on a road a project or any project or any federal government infrastructure, can meet some conditions so that, at the end of the day, you will be paid,' he said.The president noted the massive support given by the people of the South-East to him and Vice-President Namadi Sambo during the last presidential election and promised that he would do everything necessary to fulfill his promises to the people.
Click here to read full news..
