ABUJA: A chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC in Abia State and immediate-past Executive Secretary of the National Agricultural Land Development Authority NALDA, Prince Paul Ikonne, has faulted the state governor, Alex Otti for opposing the creation of Aba state from the current Abia State.
Ikonne however commended Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo state for his avowed support for the creation of an additional state for the Southeast.
Ikonne in a statement on Thursday in Abuja signed by his Spokesperson, Chiagoziem Enoch, said Governor Otti’s ambiguous stand during the public hearing on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, held in Owerri on July 19 was a huge waste of an opportunity for him to stand and be counted for the entire Eastern Nigeria in a matter his counterpart, Senator Uzodinma showed greater zeal.
He said Uzodinma’s principled stand aligns with the position of well-meaning Igbo and Nigerians across different zones who have at various times decried the grave injustice against the Igbo which has inevitably led to the eastern region having, for instance, 15 senators whereas other regions have 18 to 21 senators and more access to federal resources and appointments.
The governor had in an earlier statement defended his position, saying; “the country doesn’t require additional states, especially when most of the already existing states lack the viability for economic self-sustainability”.
Ikonne said; “But for those who know the Abia governor, that occasion afforded him the golden opportunity to express his deep resentment and vendetta against a section of Abia who must not be allowed the casual luxury of an innocuous boast of being the indigenes of Aba.
“Seeing that he lacks the power literally to undo what God has done in his eternal plans, he has resorted to other nebulous ways to express his frustration.
“On assumption of office, the first thing Governor Otti did was to rush to Aba solely to declare to a crowd of both indigenes and non-indigenes that Aba is a no man’s land, an act that was capable of needlessly pitching the indigenes against non-indigenes.
“Many wondered why he had to do that, considering that Aba has always been known to be at peace with its residents, not minding who is an indigene and who is not.
“Thankfully, the Aba spirit and its ‘Nwa Aba’ cliche, a trans-sectional phrase and aura that has adhesively bound the city, swallowed that mischievous and ill-intended divisive declaration which had the capacity to initiate deep sectional sentiments in that great city”.
Ikonne also condemned what he said was Otti’s dubious and infantile attempt to make people believe that an additional state in the East is not viable, and queried his credentials as a first-class economist in the 21st century.
The statement believes that Otti knows the truth, that the new frontier is the knowledge driven economy which Aba and the people of Abia pride themselves on and which has been successfully deployed by countries like Finland, Israel, Singapore, Netherlands and so on.
“The Governor deliberately forgot that the finite nature of natural resources has made proactive administrators to redirect their focus to other initiatives that provide sustainable development, not prone to the vagaries of nature by depending only on natural resource endowments, but one that will initiate knowledge-based programmes and policies that will move the new state away from lazily looking up to the Federal Government for monthly handouts as it is presently in Otti’s “New Abia.”
He further stressed that the clear marginalization of Ndi Igbo has continually provided the canvass upon which the agitation for a sovereign nation for Ndi Igbo has rested.
According to him, the people who have canvassed for the East to be at par with the other zones in terms of states believe that redressing this ugly imbalance will help to douse the agitation in our zone and offer a feeling of inclusion for Ndi Igbo in the Nigerian state.
“It is therefore worrisome that Gov. Otti who should be in the frontline with the likes of Senator Uzodinma in leading the agitation for the creation of additional state for Abia to address this abnormally is the one leading the gang to frustrate the actualization of an additional state for the South East
“It must be remembered that the agitation for an additional state and the viability of Aba State has passed the needed criteria thresholds. What remains is the declaration of what our fathers have put in their very lives and resources to achieve”, he added.
