(By Geoffrey Anyanwu – AWKA)
South-Easterners who held political offices during the past former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration have been blamed for the total collapse of federal infrastructure especially roads in the South-East geo-political zone.
At the moment the Enugu-Onitsha expressway, Enugu-Umuahia-Aba-Port Harcourt expressway, Oba-Nnewi-Arondizuogu-Okigwe federal road, Owerri-Anara-Okigwe federal road amongst others are all impassable.
Berating the political office holders during Jonathan’s reign for the woos of the South-East, the former National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Senatorial candidate of the party for the yet to be concluded Anambra Central Senatorial District Chief Victor Umeh said most of them were sharing dinning table and bed with the former President but could not influence the rehabilitation of federal infrastructure in the zone.
Umeh accused them of being selfish and pursuing only the growth of the financial empires using the name of the zone and to the detriment of the people of the zone.
He said South-East needed men and women who would represent the zone in both the National Assembly and in the Federal Executive Council with the burden for the development of the zone and those that could speak boldly for the good of its people, adding that, that necessitated his ambition to be in the Senate.
He said “If not for anything, we would been able to talk about the plight of Igbo land in terms of road infrastructure, today it is obvious to everybody now that South-East should be declared a disaster zone on road infrastructure. You can no longer go round the South-East from one state to another. Is only when you come into Anambra for example that you have roads to move on but the federal roads linking the states in Igbo land they are all death traps.
“One begins to wonder what has happened here in the past, because each time people talk about what they have done, I see nothing that they have done, they have not done anything. Peter Obi who is now working to go to the Senate to go and help us was living in Jonathan’s bedroom for five years and he was not able to do anything to influence federal government to construct Enugu-Onitsha expressway. The second Niger Bridge which they flagged off ended after flag-off, Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway, nobody can pass through it, you cannot go through Oba to Okigwe highway.
“They were just there helping themselves, using the people of South-East. If they were there to talk about what affected us, five years were enough for concrete action to be taken on our federal roads, but nothing happened. Remember we had the Secretary to Government of the Federation, we had Minister of Finance and Coordinator of the Economic Team, Obi himself was a member of the Economic Management Team and when they left we can move from Enugu to Anambra, you can’t move from Anambra to Imo, you can’t link Abia state, and they are still talking.
“These are people who should retire, they should go and rest because the have not done anything that is visible except that they helped themselves and their private businesses. We are now looking for people who will go there, I am not a businessman, I am a professional person, I am a Consultant, so I am not interested in building shopping malls and breweries, all those kind of sorts.
“I am going there to talk about what affects my people, I am going there to tell them this things you are doing you are not including my zone. If you don’t tackle the road infrastructure and others that are coming from the centre, then you wouldn’t say you have served, you haven’t served.”