Indeed, there is a South-East Policy
By I. A. Osakwe
Your article of August 20,2004 was written under a divine inspiration. If not so, I find it very difficult to take in your wonderful observation, that "Ever before now people who hold power at the center, seem to have a policy on how to deal with the South-east. Once in power they choose certain individuals and deal with them on behalf of the South-east." Indeed you should say it is certain that the policy is real and has been adopted as a working agenda since the civil war by subsequent military and civil administrations in Nigeria against the South East.
Just before they were dispersed in 1983, Umaru Dikko in an Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) programme, boasted he knew how Jim Nwobodo the then Anambra State Governor obtained a loan of $300,000. He regretted the transaction as something that took them off-guard and concluded that he knew Israel advanced that advanced that loan. Umaru Dikko bemoaned his immaturity during the civil war days stating that if he had his way as at that date, he could have won the war without expending a single bullet. His magic wand of winning the war that had ended was the application of a bait known to be the weakness of the South Easterners: everyman had a price. Select the yielded and the gullible amongst their members. This mission is to go back to their people to create differences of opinion. Cross the way of one Hausa man the rest will rise up in defense and so are the Yorubas. The Ibos are not like that. Their attitude is - it does not concern me. They even go an extra mile to betray an embattled brother. Only a repeated assault on their common interests may bestir them into action. Much of the time everyone is left to himself or herself to find their individual solutions for a common problem.
I thank God that you men of letters have now come to recognize the existence of their policy based on our weakness. If Ohaneze means to be taken seriously should show a working plan and a commitment to deal with the noted maxima culpa powerfully distributed wholesale and retail by decoys, black legs, the greedy and the busybodies in South-east who brutalize, intimidate and menace the people thus clogging the wheel of progress in the area.
To draw the attention of the South-east victims of the obnoxious policy, it will never be too oft repeated. God is the owner of a geographical location called Nigeria. He knows how to effect changes for the good of all being a just and righteous God. We are not sliding back.
Osakwe writes from Abuja.
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