President Tinubu’s Initiative to light up South East is revolutionary if accomplished: says HURIWA

… Urges for an end to persecution of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB

Oru Leonard 

Leading light in the nation’s civil Rights movement: Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has expressed optimism that if on-going initiative by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to light up the South East as enunciated recently by his vice, Kashim Shettima, would be revolutionary, that is if political intrigues are not permitted to derail the projects.

HURIWA which applauded also the presence at the commencement of the programme by all the Igbo governors and Nigerian statesmen of Igbo extraction such as erstwhile secretary to the government of the Federation Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, has also tasked the governors to partner effectively with credible traditional, religious, youth and civil society leaders in Igbo land and to provide total support of the entire population of South East so the noble objectives is achieved.

The Rights group said it was unthinkable that virtually 75 percent of the entire South East are cut off from the national grid just as it blamed this deliberate energy marginalisation for the poor industrialization of the Igbo region.

The Rights group said South East States should embrace the electricity reforms just approved by the Federal Government and take steps to augment the supply of electricity power to the people of the South East rather than rely solely on the federal government.

HURIWA charged the Federal and South East state governments to work out an implementable and completion time-line for the initiative and then work resolutely towards attainment so actual industrialisation of the region can begin which will inevitably, stabilize the security of South East and provide employment opportunities for millions of Igbo youths.

“For the first time since 2015, the Igbos are now being made by the national government to acknowledge that the aspiration to industrialize and build up the economy of the South East are meticulously implemented jointly between the Federal government and Igbo States. If the South East is successfully lighted up, then the efforts to unite Nigeria would be achieved since the industrialization of the South East would create the massive impression to Igbos of Nigeria that the national government has their interest at heart”.

HURIWA in a media statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko stated that the speech made by the vice President at the event is edifying, but however cautioned the Federal government not to allow dangerous politics to derail the realization of the light up South East initiative of the Federal government even as the Rights group said “many generations to come for hundreds of years will not forgive this president should he sabotage this noble project.”

HURIWA recalled that the Vice President Kassim Shettima has said that Nigeria will fully work when the south east performs optimally in industrialization with adequate power supply.

He equated the region with the Jews, whom he said are “practically mobile, economically enterprising and educationally ambitious.”

The Vice President disclosed that he rejected a proposal that suggested to cut off the south east from electricity supply due to a debt profile, noting that President Bola Tinubu means well for the nation, noting that the south east and the Governors of the zone are the best among others.

The Vice President made the remarks during the launch of South East Business Roundtable “Light up Nigeria Program”, conducted by the Niger Delta Power Holding Company Limited, NDPHC, in Enugu, on Monday.

According to Vice President Shettima, “We have to make the South East work; we’re targeting the south east for a two million job for women and the youths. We’re proceeding to Abia state to commission the power station built by the elder statesman, Prof Barth Nnaji and we will also commission some road projects and back to Enugu to commission the Smart school because education is the greatest gift you can give a generation.”

Conversely, HURIWA has congratulated Professor Batholomew Nnaji, Abia State Governor Mr. Alex Otti for the inauguration of the privately established Geometric Power Plant in Aba, Abia State.

HURIWA recalled that President Bola Tinubu on Monday launched the Geometric Power Plant in Aba, 20 years after the project was initiated by a former Minister of Power, Barth Nnaji.

Tinubu also inaugurated three roads rehabilitated by the Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, in Omoba, Jubilee, and Queens Street, all in Aba.

Speaking after launching the Geometric Power Plant, Tinubu, who was represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima, noted that “this project bears testimony to the power of dreams,” adding “today in Abia, we saw the testimony of good leadership”.

Otti also said the project was as a result of the power to dream, saying with the power project in Aba, the city is now open to national and international businesses.

HURIWA has therefore advocated an immediate end to the prosecution of the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and hundreds of thousands of the members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra because according to the Rights group, opting for political solution to the issues that led to the prolonged incarceration of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu will diffuse tensions and eradicate the insecurity that has built up since the immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari unwisely began military clampdown on the members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra.