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Foremost Chattered Accountant and former President of the Nigerian Red Cross, Chief Emmanuel Ijewere, is the interim Chairman of the Executive of the South East, South-South Professionals.
Foremost Chattered Accountant and former President of the Nigerian Red Cross, Chief Emmanuel Ijewere, is the interim Chairman of the Executive of the South East, South-South Professionals. Along with other leaders of the group, he piloted to great success the conference of the body, which was held in Calabar on July 22 and 23, 2005. Against the background of a live band music and much wining and dining, he and OCHEREOME NNANNA, had a chat outside the main doors of the Banquet Hall of the Cross River State Government House, where Donald Duke, the governor, held court as the Chief Host. He explains a little more the ideas surrounding the emergence of a common meeting point for the professionals of the former politically 'warring" neighbours of the South-South and South East zones.
This is not the first time an initiative of this nature was in place. We had the Council of South East and South-South (COSESS) put together by Ambassador M. T. Mbu and retired Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, and nothing seemed to come of it after so much ground was covered?
Perhaps, the time for the idea had not come then. It has come now. So many things have happened to give me the belief that this time, the time has come. One, we are people who have always been wondering, where are we in Nigeria in the body polity? We have seen this building up over the years. Every time we have unrest, killings in Kano and Kaduna, in Bauchi, you have unrest in the Niger Delta, even in Lagos, you ask yourself: is this the kind of Nigeria we want? So, while people like Ebitu Ukiwe meant well, things had not reach a head. Now it has reached a head, and there is no going back.
What has also fired it is that we did not know what we now know. We never realised that people like Umaru Dikko would make the kind of statement he made at the Confab, which has left people very shocked. These are some of the things that have woken people up, and in fact, fired the people, and there is no going back. Just talk to people from these two regions. Everybody believes that there is so much arrogance from other parts of the country, that people from some parts of the country must do the work for other people from the same country to enjoy. There is no going back. Enough is enough.
The governors of the two zones could be a hindrance. They are too much at the mercy of their party leadership and the Presidency?
The eleven governors of the South-South and South East are part of this project. We gave only a few days notice, and at least six of them sent representatives to this meeting, with goodwill messages. This is a new outfit, remember, but we are at one with their Excellencies. But on the other hand, we are aware that not all the governors have performed to the satisfaction of the people. The people are disappointed over some of them. Secondly, the governors are hamstrung, as you observed, or are tied down by party loyalty. We in the South-South and South East Professionals don't have that type of constraint. We are not imprisoned by party loyalty. We are only imprisoned by what is good for our people. And in many cases, party loyalty is in conflict with what is good for the people, and we know that. So, we don't want to restrict ourselves to what the governors want to do and what they don't want to do. There is a big difference between oranges and coconuts. They are edible, but they are not the same type of fruits. But as I said before, the governors are part of the project. We know that some of the governors have been politicking for the post of vice president. And one of the statements we have made that every governor or politician from the South East or South-South that dares to come out to say that he wants to be vice-president is a shame, a disgrace and a curse to the South East and South-South.
We will rather support any governor, or indeed, anybody from the South East or South-South who wants to be the president of Nigeria, because it is his right, a right which has been denied the people of these two zones, and a right which the other zones outside the South East and South-South have enjoyed over the years. We have outgrown the cursed level of second fiddlers. It is part of our duties as professionals to change the psyche of our governors and politicians that we have a right to rule Nigeria. We grew up in a system that believed that the people of the South-South and South East are only providers and not leaders. We are here to reorient them and other Nigerians that this idea is no longer acceptable, and we can be leaders.
Are you planning a platform for attaining your goals; perhaps a political platform?
We have a platform, but not yet a partisan party platform. We are playing politics, but not partisan politics. We are encouraging a number of our members to go into politics, but not under the name of South-South and South East Professionals. Anybody we see will be a good material we will support, and anybody we see is a bad material we will not only withhold our support from but also speak out against if necessary. We are not interested in any political party, but we are interested in the outcome of the politics of the nation. Anybody who wants to lead any of the eleven states of the South East and South-South must be focused, must have a programme, must have an antecedent, must have a visible means of livelihood, must understand and share the current mood of the people. We have a number of other criteria we are putting in place.
Look at the situation of this state, Cross River State. From statistics, the state is in the thirtieth position in revenue allocation. See what he has done. And when you hear him speak you know this is a man of ideas and vision. Many of the governors of the South-South and South East get a lot more than he gets, but you have seen for yourself what the governors have been able to do with what they've got. So, this is the type of thing we are talking about. We will examine the person and the plans he has for the people. You must come with your facts and you must argue your implementation strategies convincingly because in Nigeria the real challenge is ability to convert ideas into concrete achievement.
Somebody, during the sessions, raised the issue of there not being enough people from Edo and Delta in this event. Can you tell us what accounts for this very low level of participation by the professionals of the old Midwest?
The primary thing was that communication should have been better than it was but there are no blames for anybody because we are just starting. Secondly, when you look at the old Eastern Region, the majority, or the Igbo, is a virtual monolith. All the other groups were checkered. But our meetings in Lagos have always had every group well represented, especially Edo and Delta. Most importantly, as I explained today when the issue was raised, a big rally of the South-South Peoples Assembly (SSPA) is coming up in Benin next Saturday and a lot of publicity in that direction has been going on. And a number of my friends from Lagos and Abuja have been programming to storm Benin on Friday next week. So, their not coming to this meeting has nothing whatsoever with their interest in this initiative. We are all part of it. And professionals don't measure success by number or size of crowd. It does not take a very big crowd to create a revolution. The crowd, the rally comes last. It is the quality of the people who are coming forward that matters, as well as the acceptability of the idea. I am from Edo. And I am also a member of the Board of Trustees of the South-South Peoples Assembly (SSPA). I do no just speak for Edo State. I speak for the whole of the South-South. In the same way, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, who is the Chairman of the National Executive of the SSPA, who sent in a goodwill message to this meeting, is with us. In fact, he has been hospitalized and I was informed that he was discharged just today. So, nothing should be read into it.
You know old habits die hard. The process of sending this message into the populace of the two zones and changing perceptions is a huge challenge?
We are professionals. We have aired our views. There is nothing we have had in our minds that we have not had the opportunity of saying out in this meet. After all that, we agreed that we must never allow ourselves to be trapped in the past again. We must recreate ourselves to be able to move into the future. Yes, there are stereotypes, and many of them are artificial. I hate to say this, but let's give this example for the purpose of illustrating the point. Some of us in my area grew up hearing that the Igbo people eat human beings. I went to school with Igbo people; my son is married to an Ibo person, my wife lived almost all her life so far in Igboland. We have not seen one Igbo person who has done what we in Edo don't do; neither do we in Edo do what they don't do. A lot of these stereotypes have to do with the politics of division which helped to weaken us in the first place.
You run down your opponent or your neighbour and bring your children up with the wrong perception about his fellow countrymen. If we don't reverse that we cannot move forward, either as groups or as a nation. We must break with the past. You may ask: supposed the people do not listen. But I assure you that the people have started listening. Go to the various churches. Attend marriages all over Nigeria; you will discover that the days are gone when you can only marry from your own village. Today, our young men and women are opening out. We are all growing. And I am sure none of you here will reject the idea of your daughters marrying somebody who is not from your area. The world has changed, and our people must change, and in fact are already changing. That is why we say whenever the time for an idea has come no physical force can stand against it.