Chief Rommy Ezeonwuka, a prominent chieftain of Ohaneze Ndigbo in Anambra, has urged Igbo leaders to make the existing states in the South East zone viable rather than clamour for more.
Ezeonwuka told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Onitsha that the existing fives states in the zone, namely: Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo, had been deserted by people from the states.
He said that those clamouring for the additional states were not being honest to themselves, describing them as “political lepers looking for a way to get hold of Federal Government funds’’.
“That creation of states is political jingoism; I am saying that because the five states we have is where we are deserting. Igbos have deserted away from their five states and you need more states; I am not interested in more states.
“I am interested in the elites of Igbo both in Nigeria, outside Igbo land and Diaspora to come home and make the five existing states conducive for living, make it crime-free, make it kidnapping-free and armed robbery-free.
“Then, introduce employment opportunities and bring in Dubai in the Igbo land. Let us make the five states lucrative, and all our run-away, deserted people will come home.
“And if we could be happy and develop, then what is the need of the thing. So I am not interested in the state creation.’’
Ohaneze Ndigbo is an apex socio-cultural Igbo body, which is mainly made of elders, titled men, politicians and technocrats from the Igbo speaking extraction of the country.
