If Care Is Not Taken, Every Means Of Livelihood In South East Will Dry Up – Former Senate President

Former Senate President and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Ayim Pius Anyim, has lamented how insecurity and sit-at-home orders have negatively impacted the South East region.

Naija News reports that Senator Anyim, while speaking at the 2023 South East Summit on Economy and Security on Thursday, said every successful person in South East had been subjected to self-exile because of kidnapping and assassination.

The former lawmaker called for a rethink of the Biafra agitation and strategies to deal with insecurity in the region.

According to him, the South East region, going by recent developments, risks losing economic and political relevance in the country, with drastic consequences already being felt by the people after years of insecurity and agitation that have been used as a cover by criminal elements to thrive.

Anyim said there is an urgent need to review the agitation for Biafra and adopt new approaches to life and governance in the region, as economic activities may likely dry up if care is not taken.

He noted that the government’s negligence toward the region may be responsible for increased crimes and criminality in the region.

Anyim added that the situation could be turned around by providing the youth and those in authority with data on the actual losses and consequences of insecurity in the region and a return to the economic systems that made the South East a model of economic strength and growth in the past.

He said, “In the last four years, every Monday has been declared by some non-state actors as a sit-at-home day. The enforcement has been brutal, leading to enormous loss of lives and property.

“It is estimated that hundreds of lives and hundreds of billions of naira have been lost to the sit-at-home order.

“Life has become very difficult in the South East and almost every successful person in the South East is in self-exile. If care is not taken, very soon, none of us will come home, no matter the number of security personnel you carry.

“Social and economic activities have been dislocated, businesses have collapsed, no social activity can any longer simply take place in the zone and no new businesses are being attracted. If care is not taken, very soon every means of livelihood in the zone may dry up.

“Heavy arms and ammunition have become instruments of political campaigns, resulting in gross voter apathy. If care is not taken, very soon the South East will lose national political relevance as votes from the South East will no longer be of any consequence.

“Crime and criminality have become widespread in South East because common criminals have taken advantage of the agitation to advance their evil enterprise.

“There is a nexus between the high level of insecurity in the South East and the fact that some criminal elements are unleashing mayhem under the cover of agitation for Biafra.

“We must emphasise that the circumstance that led to Biafra agitation in 1967 is not the same as what is happening today. Therefore, we must endeavour to point out the difference in the present agitation.

“Today, we do not have anything that in any way approximates the situation in 1967. There is absolutely no consensus on the purpose, content, method, and boundaries of today’s Biafra agitation. I therefore call for a rethink by all those involved in this agitation. In rethinking the Biafran agitation, we need to honestly articulate what has been the outcomes or impact of the agitation so far.”