Former Imo State Attorney General, Prof. Francis Dike has said that the South-South geopolitical zone is joining other zones to marginalise the South-East.
Dike, the Chairman of Imo Council of Elders, made the claim why reacting to a question about the alleged exclusion of the South-East from the list of zones to benefit from projects under the $22.7 billion loan by the Federal Government.
According to him, people from the South-East have been hard done by the present arrangement.
He said that the nation’s development would continue to be stunted if the nation is not restructured to conform with the principles of true federalism.
The Professor of Law and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) said it was particularly sad that the South-South, which should be brothers of the South-East, have joined in the marginalisation of the region.
On the alleged exclusion of the South-East from projects in the $22.7 billion loan request, Dike said, “In the first place, I think it is misnomer to say we are in a federation. We are not in a federation. We are in a unitary government that is governed by a group of people who have no interest for Nigeria.
“You can say we are governed by a group of people who believe that what is theirs is their own and what is ours is negotiable. In fact, to use the word negotiable is even mild. It is what is ours belongs to them and from there they can throw the crumbs to our people.
“Everybody knows that the Southeast is not regarded in the equation of this President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. It is not regarded as part of Nigeria.
“But what comes from the Southeast goes into the federation. And it is used by those who contribute less to the federation for their own benefits. I am not shocked.
“In fact, I would have been surprised if a good share was given to the Southeast. There have been deliberate policies to marginalise the Igbo.
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“Even our South-South neighbours, who we regard as our kinsmen, are joining these people to marginalise us. And this is just the manifestation of that policy. It is just the manifestation of that policy and it will continue.
“We all saw the question of toll gates. It will cost more to build a road from one point to another point in the north than it will cost in the Southeast even when it is the same mileage. Is it not? And yet you have less toll gates in the north than in the southeast.
“Let me just put it this way; I think it was Fani Kayode that was saying about restructuring. I want to talk as an elder statesman. There is a saying that we, by our own hands, precipitate that which we have feared to come to pass.
“And what is happening today is that we are now tying the Gordian knot and the question of untying it would be totally impossible.
“Does it look fair? By any stretch of imagination, it doesn’t look fair. But what is annoying me, let me just put it this way, is the fact that only very few people want to talk in terms of what is going on.
“The South Easterners are not an ethnic group, they are a nation. They are not like the Kurds that are Balkanized into different branches.
“They are a concentration of a people. And the only way you can try to subdue them against their will is by committing genocide. I think you understand what I am saying.
“You can overrun the Kurds in Syria as they are doing now. You can overrun the Kurds in Turkey as they are doing now because they are not one concentrated nation. But in Nigeria, you can never overrun the Igbos.”