S’EAST, S’SOUTH PROFESSIONALS TASK FG ON SECURITY, GRAFT
By Victor Ajihromanus
Vanguard
5th August 2020

The South-East, South-South Professionals of Nigeria (SESSPN), has said that what it described as absence of justice, rule of law and merit in all areas of governance in the country is responsible for the economic, political and social deterioration of Nigeria.

This is just as the advocacy group urged the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to restructure the country, review the present devolution of powers, whittle down the centre, allow for competition and calculated economic growth in accordance with the needs of the different regions and revisit the reports of 2014 Constitutional Conference.


Speaking yesterday during his maiden press conference held virtually on Zoom platform, the newly elected president of SESSPN, Barr Hannibal Uwaifo, said the organization is committed to the total emancipation of the people of South-South and South-East for good governance and progress.

According to him, the country must move away from ethnicity, religious intolerance and engage in constructive nation-building, adding that state government must develop security architectures around community policing and vigilante groups to project and secure their people.

“How can insecurity be tackled when the appointment of Service Chiefs and other critical security officials are harped on religious beliefs, personnel affinity and closeness to persons in the corridors of power?” he queried.


“The truth is that Nigeria is generally referred to as a failed country in international circles. A country that is unable to protect her citizens and her boarders is nothing less than that. An urgent plan must be put in place to restructure the country in such a way that real power to develop and secure the confidence of the citizenry would reside in the federation units.”

While stating that the federal government should return regional powers corruptly seized by the successive military governments to the regional governments who should develop at their pace using whatever natural and artificial resources available in their zones, he lamented that the central government has continues to hold what is traditionally central to all.

“The SESSPN will continue to champion this cause for the overall benefits of the regions it represents and for the overall benefit of Nigerians who are suffering from untold hardship with no solution in sight except for empty promises of a better tomorrow that only exist in their minds

On corruption, the advocacy group said the depth of corruption in the country is not only frightening but absurd, adding that, “the system encourages countless numbers of probe funds to be instituted and results are either swept under the carpet or subjected to another probe.”


The SESSPN said it has produced a document which represents a blueprint for the rapid economic and social development of the South East South South regions, adding that the document represents the first bold attempt at regional economic integration.

Expressing their displeasure on developments around the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the professionals said, “For us in SESSPN, we are very sad over recent developments in the Commission. We call on the National Assembly to caution its members, work with the Executive to produce legislation for a transparent process of appointments into NDDC, forbid politicians from handling its affairs and craft out the type of intervention jobs that the Commission can legally undertake.


“The amendment to the NDDC Act must provide a transparent process of selecting contractors, transparent auditing system, an independent verification of projects awarded and an independent payment system”

The group also rued the state of development in the two regions, stating, “We state without fear of whatever attention is purportedly being paid to the problems in the South East as half-hearted and political stunt.

“While the Country continues to reel under the burden of quota, what real value of quota has been allocated to the East? More damning is the fraud being perpetrated by the political cabal against Eastern Nigeria. The question is if the Country has accepted to do rotational Presidency, even if not Constitutional or temporary. The truth is that all their slots, only the East has been left as an orphan. Is the East not part of Nigeria?”


The SESSPN also engaged the federal government over the country’s burgeoning external loans, stressing that, “The huge sums of money being borrowed especially from China has not in any way matched the infrastructural decay and mass poverty on the ground in the country. More worrisome is that most of these loans which in most cases are either squandered or partially put on white Elephant projects to deceive the unwary public are package and collected without proper scrutiny.

“SESSPN is not against borrowing to finance well thought out infrastructural projects that benefit the general populace like the Railway Project which to our mind have been largely commendable in execution.“


SOURCE:
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/08/seast-ssouth-professionals-task-fg-on-security-graft/