South-East, South-South professionals plan 10-year regional development plan

The Southeast, South-south Professionals of Nigeria have set up a committee to work out a 10-year plan for the development of the 11 states within the region.

The group which announced this after its meeting in Enugu said the development plan would among other things identify key areas of collaboration among the states as well as areas of comparative advantage.

Addressing journalists after its meeting, President of the group, Emeka Ugwu-Oju, who was flanked by the chairman of the committee and President of Ijaw Professionals, Denzel Kentebe, and Dr. Okey Ikechukwu, a member of THISDAY Newspapers Editorial Board, said members were drawn from the 11 states of Abia, Anambra, Bayelsa, Cross-River, Akwa-Ibom, Rivers, Edo, Delta, Enugu, Imo and Ebonyi.

He said members of committee made up of professionals from all spheres of the economy were expected to work out an acceptable plan on how to take the area to another level.

Ugwu-Oju added that the committee would identify opportunities for improvement in the two regions, stressing that they were not out to either give pass or fail marks to either states or federal government as regards to the development of the two zones in the years gone by.

“No doubt, we are very much aware that we have economic commissions existing in the two zones, we have chambers of commerce and other economic bodies scattered in all these states and one key role they are playing is to initiate and drive economic activities in their
areas.

“You will agree with me that every state has comparative advantage; we are looking at such strategic areas including agriculture, healthcare delivery, tourism, transport, employment. We want to identify how these have worked in the various states, what their costs implications are and how if we come together, we can improve on what is available to move the zones to another higher level.

“Members are made up of people who had success stories; people who are competent in all sectors of the economy; so it is all about regional integration that will be driven by competent personalities”, he noted.

In his remarks, Ikechukwu dismissed insinuations that the group was going to be involved in arm-chair criticism of governments at various levels, adding that it was not a partisan group.

“This body is not even about controversies and debates; they are more interested in constructive engagements; we are not arm-chair critics; the association is not partisan either. However, we are not shying away from politics, people are encouraged to be part of the poltical process; without attention to politics, development cannot come, but in terms of party politics, we are non-partisan”, he stated.