The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, declared that the South-East should be allocated more states to address “the wrongs that had been done to the region on state creation.’’
The demand by Ohanaeze comes following the proposal for the creation of 31 new states by the House of Representatives.
The House of Representatives proposes Etiti and Orashi as the sixth states in the South-East; Adada from Enugu; and Orlu and Aba.
Speaking on the proposal, Ohanaeze’s National Publicity Secretary, Dr. Ezechi Chukwu, stated, “It is unfortunate that such a bill is also aimed at suppressing the South-East as usual. It is completely unacceptable that the Southeast should be appropriated only five states.
“South-East, all this while, is the only zone in the Federal Republic of Nigeria that has the least number of states, irrespective of our population and our contributions to both the economy and the infrastructural development of the nation.
“So, giving southeast such a small number of five states in this bill when others that already have advantages were orchestrated by successive governments before now is quite unacceptable, and unfortunately, it is above all antithetical to the commonwealth of the South-Easterners and the so-called equity we are preaching in the country.”
Ohanaeze added, “The Southeast deserves more states more than any other zone in the country because the Southeast is the only zone that has been short-changed over the years by successive governments. So, if justice and equity should prevail, the southeast must be given the highest number of states.
“So, if the federal government fails to correct the wrongs that have been done to the South-East over the years, this is the time to at least give this equation some terms of balance by appropriating more states to the South-East to make up with the other geopolitical zones.”
