SEDC: South East Govs concour on shared regional responsibility

The Governors of five states in the south east have Concord that there is need for the states to share intelligence, corporate on infrastructure development and draw harmonized regional integration plan for the region to have integrated and accelerated 50 years development plan.

This is as Vice President Kashim Shettima noted that there is current high quality leadership in the south east that have already enabled developments in the region.

Shettima stated that the Igbo are the hope of the black race, adding that the south east region matters to Nigeria. He also agreed that there have been decades of infrastructure deficit in the region which the South East Development Commission, SEDC, was established to resolve the imbalance.

The remarks were made during the South East vision 2050 Regional Stakeholders Forum organized by the SEDC in Enugu, on Wednesday. 

Speaking one after the other, the south east Governors who were all present, said that integration of all indices of development in the region were possible, starting with power integration, which the Abia state Governor, Alex Otti, said that with Geometric power capacity in Aba, the entire South East could be hooked on one grid power generation and supply.

"If we had started the debate, we would have succeeded by now," Otti said.

Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State asked the South East Development Commission to focus on projects that are crucial to the zone, such as the connection of highways across the region, railway project for the zone, sea port, security, institutional frameworks and other service projects essential in the region.

The Ebonyi state Governor, Francis Nwifuru said that his state has the capacity to comfortably feed the region, while the Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah, stated that sustainable regional development thrives better with national enablement.

"We must build a different system, starting from with thinking differently. We must step from vision to execution, the direction must be set clearly," Mbah said.