In Nigeria today, everything is right to the extent the interest of your tribe, religion, political party and personal income is not abridged by policies and politics. Most people deploy their “patriotic” best when other sections of the country are at the receiving end. I dare say that I abhor such politics and care less what anybody’s view on that may be. People must understand that being in same political party is not synonymous with having a consolidated view on all issues of national development. Our values cannot be the same for so many reasons. This is why I get amused each time people ignorantly think that I must approve of every actions of government because I am in APC. It is even worse when “little men” ramble over my position because they warned me to support a certain political orientation. 

Sometime in 2011, I penned a widely publicized article titled “The Road to Biafra” and highlighted the orchestrated neglect of the South East zone by the Federal Government. I warned that such neglect is a recipe for a journey towards Biafra. The likes of Chief Edwin Clarke took up a full paged advertorial and slammed me, but some South Easterners that should have spoken out at the time, kept quiet and applauded the old man. Their only reason was their affiliation to the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). Today, the orchestrated underdevelopment in the South East has entered another dangerous phase. In this instance, Obasanjo and Jonathan were major culprits and Buhari has notched it up notwithstanding the emerging pronouncements from Aso Rock.

I am disturbed that President Buhari and his economic management team are willing to borrow almost US$30bn for the purpose of funding the budget and building major infrastructural facilities in the country. For starters, I am 100% against the loan because I am convinced in my mind that the Economic Management Team lacked the necessary tools to manage such huge facility. I can never support or entrust such an amount in the hands of a team headed by a Vice President that believes he can pray Nigeria out of recession. Secondly, there is no visible roadmap on how the loan will be paid back to lenders and the duration that will take. The entire thing smacks of gross incompetence and economic management by instinct. 

Beyond the stated matter of incompetence on the part of the economic team, the application of the loan is problematic, lopsided and designed to perpetually deprive the South East, Kogi and Benue States the needed developments to make their states self-sufficient. Of the almost US$30bn loan sent to the National Assembly for Approval, a whopping US$18bn is earmarked for capital infrastructural investment. The entire South East and the states of Kogi and Benue are not accommodated in the facility. The designers of this programme are either bigoted or extremely myopic to think that a loan contracted in the name of the whole country will be deployed to develop some sections at the expense of others. They forgot in their bigoted imagination that the entire country will pay back the loan. This is 2016 and not the 70s, 80s, 90s and a decade ago when they were allowed to be whimsical in application of federal resources.

It is pertinent to make it clear to all those involved in the machinations to deprive the South East that they are indirectly building highways for the proponents of Biafra to drive on high speed. The deprivation of the south easterners in Nigeria is the bane of our under development as a country. Citizens of that zone are the most hardworking, most creative and thrives in a level playing field better than any section of this country. I am willing to accept a debate on this.

Despite the orchestrated deprivation, the zone has remained the most technological advanced section of the country both in intellectual and technical capacity. Why are we holding ourselves down in guise of holding the people of South East down? Are we still in denial that an infrastructural developed South East will take Nigeria to the promised land of self-reliance?

Did it not occur to the Economic Management Team that a modern railway line from Port Harcourt through Ohaji/Egbema – Oguta – Nnewi – Onitsha – Itakpe – Ajaokuta will accelerate the technological development of Nigeria far greater than the confusion we are having presently? The automobile industry in Nnewi can derive its raw materials from Itakpe/Ajaokuta corridor and the Port Harcourt harbour can reclaim its pride of place if the Onitsha businessmen are encouraged to patronize the facility. 

The major problem facing our country today is national cohesion and such policies as contained in this unneeded loan will further draw us apart. Why not corruption one may ask? Well, if we achieve national cohesion, corruption will be minimized. Nepotism and bigotry are all essential ingredients of corruption.

KJE.