PEACE IN THE SOUTH EAST PROJECT – DEPUTY SPEAKER KALU’S PANACEA FOR ACCELERATED DEVELOPMENT:
(A CLUB 17 PEACE INITIATIVE PUBLICATION)
Maxwell Ordor Reporting
Rt. Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu, Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, National Assembly, Abuja, Stands out distinct for the bull by the horns to Innoculate the Incredible Ceasure of Peace in the South East Geo-political Zone and other parts of Nigeria where the Easterners dwell and carry on their businesses on daily basis – Homeland.
Truth be said, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the Nation, Nigeria, has suffered unprecedented attack unleashed on the economy of a nation believed to be the giant of the African Continent, resulting in the near absence of peace and its cascading consequences.
The mitigation or mere absence of peace in any society brings along with it untold hardship, stagnation and deprivation upon the citizenry, let alone one that is not fighting any military warfare but a warfare of Suspicion and Exclusion of a people from a Pinned Ethnic Group, recovering from the hostilities and destructions of an avoidable civil war … Genocide and Extermination of the people with weapons of mass destruction, hunger, starvation and deprivation.
On both sides of the conflict were people of divided identities signifying phobia and heightened anxieties of Immense Negative Extremes. While the Federal Government of Nigeria is sweating from the suspicion that the South Easterners are again at their ploy of luring and plunging the nation into another avoidable civil war in the 21st century; the South Easterners (Ibos) and others beyond that Geographic Perimeters called the South East and their sympathizers are quaking with palpable fear of high-feverish dimension in suspicion that the Rest of the Nigerian state was itching and craving to close-in again on their perceived enemies, unwanted, endangered species, hated members to wipe them away from the rest of Nigeria. Previous Administrations did not help matters at all. While some took to every available medium of mass information dissemination to tag and tarnish South Easterners as antagonists of the Rest of Nigerians and indeed Nigeria, others subjected them to abject ignominy.
When an individual is enveloped in a wild fear of suspicion and anxiety, All things are possible and suspect in his own assumptions. Any flake or spark of emotion is obviously misconstrued, misunderstood and mistaken for another barrel or gun shot against them, a people, civilians without arms to be murdered in cold blood.
In this country we have identified in unmistakable terms several dislocations and displacements of the Ibo Nation or Ethnic Group wilfully and consciously by the Rest of the Nigerian State. Every Step by a hated dog gives him a bad name…what else…a hard knock… merciless whip…kill him.
In all of these circumstances, we have witnessed a doctrinated misplacement of the South East Geo-political Zone in perpetual position of lack, negligence, abdication and disadvantage, signifying extreme impoverishment.
We thank God immensely for the person of Godsent RT. Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu, Deputy Speaker House of Representatives, whom God has sent to rewrite our history and rescue us from the ugly and sad state of affairs with a pleasant narrative in humility and dutiful sense of purpose.
We salute your courage. We support your vision. We align ourselves absolutely to the Peace In The South East – Project (PISE-P). Deputy Speaker Ben Kalu, we must gravitate balloons and confettis for you…you offered us that voice beckoning for Peace. We must therefore vent our failing hearts of steaming emotional vapour bottled over the years. We support and align ourselves to your ingenuity and unbridled affection and compassion for your kinsmen from the South East Geo-political Zone and in the rest of Nigeria; commending your Humility, Passion, Focus, Dexterity and Subliminal Strategic Thinking and Positiveness Ensuring that we Heave a sigh of relief for once in time. We mention your Brilliant Legislative Bridge Building Overtures and Appeal, Giving Birth to the succour we now savour in relish with the Establishment of the South East Development Commission (SEDC) to heal the wounds and lacerations of the past, reconciling the people across the divides into mainstreaming of the South East.
Indeed, the anxieties that pervaded the vertical and horizontal perimeters of the entire landscape, symbolic hatred of the endangered species has gone, giving way to renewal of Hope, Promised Future, Great Expectations and Fulfilment Herald from the Pioneer Board of the South East Development Commission (SEDC) a synergism of men of High Integrity and Maximal Competencies and Capacity to Deliver on their Core Mandate without let or hindrance, the bunch of anticipated flight and departure from the sordid past. Congratulations Beloved Pioneer Board Members. You have earned your placements to various Duty Call…We Urge you to work Assidously, Meritoriously and Excellently, So that when your work is done, you Exit with Honour and Cheers.
Rt. Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu, Deputy Speaker House of Representatives, Worthy Statesman and Quintessential Leader of Profundity and Essence, we honour you with great encomiums and resonating accolades for wielding and manifesting the finest legislative electrodes into such a magnificent quality of elements that are weather coated to stand the test of time.
You have laid this solid foundation for erection of sustainable structures that sustainably irrigate and cement accelerated development of the South East Geo-political Zone.
As an Essential Democrat, you have nurtured credible models through your astute politico-socio phenomenon of “live and let’s live” in peace, unity and progress without any iota of Bitterness. We Move!
Please Accept the Enormity of our Gratitude Delight and Profundity of our Appreciation for your love for Humanity. God Bless you.
Maxwell Ordor is a seasoned media consultant from Abia State
