The Governor of Anambra State, Chukwuma Soludo, says the South-East must have the self-belief to turn things around despite insecurity and other challenges facing the zone.
Speaking on Thursday at the 2023 South-East Summit on Economy and Security in Owerri, the Imo State capital, Soludo said the region must make all efforts to thrive despite insecurity, insisting that the zone is far from being the most insecure place in the world.
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“I have heard the speeches given, books of lamentations. It is very good to lament but I would rather like to see a glass as half full than half empty. The South-East is ready for business; the South-East is ripe for business and we must all believe in our ability to turn things around and get the South-East going again.
“That must be the outcome of this particular summit. We can lament about insecurity and so on; this is not the most insecure place in the world, other places are thriving despite their own insecurity.
“When arrived in Anambra, eight local governments were totally under siege by these hoodlums. They are all gone, we are settling into business. They would not deter us, Anambra, the South-East all of us, we must be determined to move our place forward in spite of the challenges,” the governor said.
He charged the South-East indigenes not to wait for all the problems to be solved by the governors before they can come to invest in the zone, adding that if they don’t stop seeing the only gloom and doom, “this place will be a desolate homeland”.
According to Soludo, the South-East renaissance should not stop at self-belief, the region should also partner with the rest of the country, the diaspora and the international community.
“We need not just ourselves, we need Nigeria. Ndigbo needs Nigeria and Nigeria needs Ndigbo. Ndigbo needs Africa and the world and the World and Africa need Ndigbo. As an itinerant people, we cannot be an intolerant people.
“We need the partnership of everybody, partnership of the rest of the country, partnership of the diaspora and partnership with the international community.”
