Umahi, Uzodinma, Others Shun Soludo’s Invite For Southeast Conference

Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State, Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State and other Southeast governors have shunned the zone’s regional conference on human capital development, hosted by Anambra State Governor Chukwuma Soludo.

Naija News reports that Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, Uzodinma and Umahi all sent representatives to the two-day conference held in Awka, the Anambra State capital.

The conference had the theme: changing the narrative – towards entrenching human capital development in the Southeast Nigeria.

Speaking at the summit, Governor Soludo slammed Southeast leaders for their lack of unity.

While calling for a regional education board to fashion out a curriculum for the region, the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said that the Southeast could come together and set up a teacher certification institute to certify teachers for schools in the region.

Charles Chukwuma Soludo

On education, labour and health, Soludo said they could be adopted by the governors of the region to grow human capital.

He maintained that the Southeast could not afford to lag in the area of human capital development, adding that Anambra had the least land mass in the country, and also the least natural resources.

Soludo said: “Your recommendations are excellent. I will read them with keen interest and see which of them we can take.

“We have little land mass in the Southeast. We are actually the smallest with Lagos State, but while Lagos is reclaiming land from the sea, we are losing our land to gully erosion.

“Anambra is the world’s gully erosion capital. In the Southeast, we are landlocked, and we have the least mineral resources. Our only boost is human capital.

“Human capital naturally is our only dependable resource. It has been so yesterday and today and will remain so tomorrow.”