We demand that the minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Sadiya Umar Farouq make public the register that is being used for these disbursements so we can verify that the South East is not relegated and shortchanged as we have seen severally. It’s sad to recall that there is a total exclusion of the South East Zone in the $22.7 Billion loan approved by the Senate just recently.
Also, we should not forget in a hurry that the South East Zone was conveniently forgotten in the rail infrastructure development when the plan for the Port Harcourt to Maiduguri line was being designed. From General Electric (GE) taking over the South East rail lines, the story changed dramatically to the Chinese being asked to take over the eastern axis under a Public Private Partnership, where they use their own money to fix it and recover their money over time. It is sad and absurd that the South East is subjected to such treatment.
The Akanu Ibiam International Airport Enugu renovation works which has taken over seven months of work has been halted for ambiguous reasons. First the ministry of aviation attributed their inability to complete the job as announced earlier to the scarcity of quarry dust, only to twist a few days later to put the blame on COVID-19 lockdown and shutdown. It is interesting to note that the Abuja International Airport with a longer runway was done and dusted in 6 weeks. There has been so many instances of a deliberate or accidental neglect of the South East Zone, and it would be awesome to prove that this is not the case with this COVID-19 stimulus package. We ask that you surprise us for once.
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