The Anambra State governor, Chukwuma Charles Soludo has proposed a new economic model for growth across States in the South Eastern part of Nigeria, lamenting however that the region, comprising, Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo States are ‘extremely hostile’.

Recall that some assets including offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and police stations as well as prominent individuals have become a soft target for attacks, which often result in loss of lives or endangered species by armed militia group, otherwise called Eastern Security Network (ESN) in South East.

Aburime Christian, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Chukwuma Charles Governor in a statement on Friday, made the assertion at the 2023 South East Human Capital Development Conference at the International Convention Center, Awka, the State Capital.

The former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), according to Aburime, spoke during the Conference on the theme: “Changing the Narrative Towards Entrenching Human Capital Development in South East Nigeria”.

“How does the South East, with its uniqueness and vast resources dispersed throughout the world, ratchet up the homeland and build the ones for tomorrow? What do we need to do differently?.

“There’s a lot more work to be done for the South East in addition to the ones that have already been done,” Soludo said.

According to him, “The concept of Communities is very strong in the SouthEast. Many primary and Secondary schools were built by Communities rather than the government. Communities have paved numerous roads.

“Most of the recommendations from this conference are government centric, in essence what Government must do but more than 99% of the region’s resources happen to be in private hands.

“You must carefully consider and leverage your delivery mechanism!”

“Our delivery mechanism in Anambra is a Public, Private Community Partnership. What can the Community do to help? What is the government’s role? What can the Local government do?

“We must mainstream studies, comparative studies and locations, best practices; who do we want to imbibe? Who are our counterparts or benchmarks?

“We are living in the digital age and the fourth industrial revolution. How can we get from where we are now to where we need to be? How do we make use of technology?

“What will the structure be for networking, collaboration, and cooperation? Can we form a regional team to review curriculum? This is something we’re attempting in Anambra”, Soludo assured.

Continuing, Governor Soludo said, “The Nigerian educational system strives for common standards rather than minimum standards. Who says we can’t have a South East exam board even if it’s not part of the national curriculum?

“There is room for us to think as a region. Let’s work together to make these things happen.

“In Anambra’s case, the State is the world’s gully erosion. We have the second smallest land mass after Lagos, and our land is extremely hostile.

“Our vast productive resources, investment, and financial assets are located outside of the region.

“We are unique in a number of ways that we must capitalize on, in order to ask what we will do differently to produce different results”, Soludo advised.

TheNewspad reports that some stakeholders and pressure groups had blamed the intolerable levels of arson and insecurity in most parts States on the continuous detention of Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu who is standing trial for terrorism, treason and other offences in Nigeria court.

In the midst of hostilities that has cast a shadow on the conduct of elections in some States in the Southeast region, Governor Soludo, recently pledged to stand as a surety for the detained leader of indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu as a recipe for peace in the region.

But the federal government, turned down his request, with INEC insisting that the general electrons in February and March 2023, will hold across South East States despite security scare.

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