Agitations by all regions of the country will be a thing of the past, if the Federal Government will give a listening ear to the issue of restructuring Nigeria, the Secretary, Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN Abia State chapter, Rev. Blessed Amalambu has opined.
This is even as he reasoned that Igbos lacked the capacity to rule themselves unless they change their orientation, a learn to trust and love one another.
Amalambu who spoke to a cross section of Journalists in Umuahia on major challenges bedeviling the country, further opined that restructuring will help Nigeria to be stable and remained united as one.
His words, “We need restructuring in Nigeria. A situation where a particular region is enjoying and others suffering is disheartening. A situation where nepotism is the order of the day and where one region or tribe is qualified to hold sensitive and juicy positions and other are not qualified to hold same, is bad.
“I suggest that each region should develop and manage their resources and pay a certain quota to the Federal account, which the constitution should cover. This will lessen the agitations. If this is achieved, any region agitating, will be within the region, and no more venting their anger on the federal government or the presidency”.
The Abia PFN Scribe wondered why money bags in the southeast seldom help the zone to develop unlike what is obtainable in the other regions.
Amalambu queried, “How much have we, particularly Igbo politicians invested to develop Igbo land? How many people have we empowered to stand independently and in turn empower others? We receive allocations and other incentives, yet we are doing nothing but we are clamouring for self actualization and rulership and in turn marginalizing ourselves. Is it not an irony?
“We need to have a new orientation, where we place our land first before self. In all the regions of the country, Igbo land is the least developed, the most backward. Not that the money is not forthcoming but management has become the problem. Except we solve the managerial problem, whereby we will be able to know our priorities, know where to channel our monies to develop the Igbo land, then the comity of nations will see us as being serious in our agitations.
Amalambu said Igbos are capable of providing jobs for themselves without relying on the Government but decried that, “our problem in the southeast remained that, when you make a little effort to create a job and be self-employed, heavy taxation and levies will strangulate and suffocate your efforts.
“Many Igbos would have become industrialists today and at least absorb more unemployed people in their establishment, but they have been forced to close down because of multiple and heavy taxation. But, go to the other regions, they encourage small and medium scale enterprises, taxation is minimal over there. In our region, you are faced with infrastructural levy, business premises levy, operational permit, borehole levy, among others. Petty traders and hawkers on the streets are not left out. They are forced to pay heavily before they sell their goods or wares. We bully them, and destroy their goods.
“Presently, we are burning vehicles and vandalizing things in the guise of protest. How does it concern or affect the federal government? Is it not our own property? The same spirit, the same mindset, the same people. How can Biafra struggle work? So, for us as the Igbo nation, we need to sit back and think and all hands must be on deck”.
Amalambu decried further that the activities of sycophants and praise singers are not helping matters in the region, as according to him, the leader might have something good for the led, but the intermediaries will undermine and frustrate his (the leader) vision.
“A leader should know who has his interest and progress at heart, who want his leadership to succeed. A leader should know that person, who is there to sap his pocket. They are the praise singers. In Igbo land, praise singers have outnumbered those who have the real sense of operation and that are where the problem lies. So, it is high time we, including our leaders stopped the activities of sycophants and know those who really want our progress as Ndi Igbo”.
End
Uche Nwosu is a two time Shell Petroleum PLC award winner in the year 2000;
He won the Shell Award on Investigative Journalism and Environmental Cleanliness.
