South-east, South-south governors meet, pledge support for Nigeria’s unity

The South-south and South-east governors forum rose from their second meeting on Sunday in Port Harcourt to reaffirm their support for the unity of the country.

They also promised to continue supporting calls for the devolution of powers and resources to the states and establishment of state police.

Briefing journalists at the end of their meeting at Government House Port Harcourt, chairman of the forum and Governor of Akwa Ibom, Emmanuel Udom, said they “examined several issues, including security and other topical matters dominating national discourse at the moment.”

According to him, “they will reach out to other regions of the country with a view to form alliances and collaborations that will promote national interest.”

“Nigeria is a country we love, we will do all to maintain unity of the country. We will follow up on how to tackle decay in the regions. We touched on security issues. We must do all possible to protect lives. We discussed economic issues, we will collaborate with other regions to make sure issues of national interest are promoted,” he said.

Earlier, the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, said that the two regions would continue to be “worse off” without collaborating with other regions.

“As we go into the business of this meeting, let us be confident in the rightness of our course and clear in our considerations that we have been and would continue to be worse off without the will to exploit our political and economic complementarities to drive our ways into political, economic and social prosperity.

“Above all, we must continue to demand for the devolution of powers and resources to the states as well as the institutionalisation of state police, now that there is national consensus on these issues.

“From geo-strategic economic perspective therefore, there is an urgent need to establish and link our cities with railways and super highways; to provide viable and affordable flight services between our cities, and to ensure that cargoes are brought into the country and the regions through our seaports, jetties and ferry services as a veritable means of stimulating economic growth and social progress across our two regions.”

In attendance at the meeting were Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, David Umahi of Ebonyi State, Rochas Okorocha of Imo State and Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State.

The Acting Governor of Bayelsa State, Gboribiogha John Jonah; Deputy Governor of Anambra State, Nkem Okeke; Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi; Edo State Deputy Governor; Philip Shaibu and Deputy Governor of Cross River State, Ivara Esu, also attended the meeting.