Gov Soludo Extempore Speech At SEDC Stakeholders Forum

PROTOCOLS!

I want to thank SEDC for organizing this event. Secondly, I want to thank His Excellency Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for finally…finally giving us what we have been clamoring for in decades- the South East Development Commission.

He can be aptly described as “Ogugua Ndi Igbo”, for this particular singular act- just the first of it. We thank you immensely. I need to thank also, my colleague governors, for standing firm.

A bold statement has been made today; unlike what happened in the past. I said this because I’ve been here before. I was once the Chairman, Planning and Strategy Committee for Ohaneze Ndi Igbo; and we chose to do this. I had a committee of about 121 professionals from the South East. And we set out; for me, some kind of a Planning Framework. Unfortunately, the South East Governors could not meet, even for us to present what we had produced.

Today, therefore, is history in the making. The Governors are united with a common vision that we must sing a new song. Thank you very much, dear colleagues. For me, as a product of the former East Central State; the current South East was the foremost East Central State after the Civil war. I had my Primary school in the present Ebonyi State. All my teachers come from the current five South Eastern states.

*PLANNING FOR IMPACT, MEGA TRENDS AND CONNECTIVITIES*

This is supposed to be a prelude to producing a plan. Therefore, I am here to draw your attention to a few, for emphasis.

There have been many plans; and there are still many plans. Is this going to be just another plan? We have the National Development Plan 2021-2025; Renewed Hope Development Plan 2026-2030;  Every state has its own plan. In Anambra, I chaired the development of the Vision 2070 Committee- a fifty years development plan.

So, the question is; “what will be the value of this regional plan? What is new? What’s going to be new?” SEDC is there. We have regional plans, but I don’t know of any governor that bases his annual budget on the regional plan; even the federal government, I’ll dare to say. Rarely will see them referencing those plans.

Why hasn’t these plans worked? That’s the question the drafting committee must ask. My short answer is that technocrats often mistakenly believe that you can take politics out of policy. It is easier to build consensus about regional, fiscal and infrastructure planning than policies. Even when the change is within the same political party, you would still find wide variations in policy.

Let us focus for impact. The plan that we require, will be probably be indicative rather than prescriptive. This plan would be a framework that focuses on de-risking investments in shared regional public growth. And I will suggest to you to keep it simple.

For measurable impact, the regional plan would add value to the various state and local government plans, and not write a plan which we use to decorate the shelves. I will urge to focus at least 70% of the plan on what the south east development commission can deliver and 30% on miscellaneous. Avoid the mistakes of going into all manner of micro interventions – boreholes, schools, one-kilometer roads.

For me therefore, the question is, at the end of it all: how will Ndi Igbo evaluate the usefulness and impact of SEDC and its plan. For me, southeast has gone through two major wars- Nigerian Biafra civil war (1967-1970), and more recently, an internal war of self-destruction that has been on since 2021. After the civil war, there was a promise of rehabilitation and reconstruction; and ladies and gentlemen, this is yet to happen. The second war as imposed massive tax on production and massive financial and human capital flight from the region and destruction of infrastructure.

South east, going forward and this plan coming timely, is almost in a post war reconstruction mode- the fifty something years promise that never happened, and with the current one with the governors working tirelessly to root out criminals from our bushes and our streets. We are now in a post war reconstruction mode.

Therefore, SEDC must see itself as the instrument for the execution of equivalent of a “Marshall Plan” for the south east.

What is the Marshall plan? The Marshall plan of the united state of America named the European republic plan 1948 -1951, was a special reconstruction plan for 16 west European nations including Germany. And as at 2024, it was estimated that particular intervention by the US to reconstruct Europe was equivalent of over a hundred billion dollars, and it’s aimed at building a war-thorne Europe especially in its infrastructures and industry.

And so, for this plan, it should be focus, focus…and roundly so, be Nigeria’s Mashall plan for the south east. The is what it has to be. To be impactful, to be measurable and for us to deliver tangible results.

This plan should focus not on everything, keep it simple, focused on few key deliverables, and I suggest three major planks of it:

A)  Regional security framework and funding including regional command and control center as well as super drones to penetrate our forest and so on and so forth. Southeast has suffered avoidable monumental losses due to self-inflicted insecurity. And this needs to change, for the first time in five years, Onitsha main market is now open.

B) Super Inter-state infrastructure- regional railways and regional highways connecting major cities and state capitals, regional pipe lines for gas plants and sea ports.

When Mr. president visited Anambra on 8th may, 2025, among other things, I requested for the inclusion of the south east in the national rail and gas master plan, as well as dredging of river Niger for the Onitsha River port to become operational; and he approved it on the spot. Now, SEDC should follow up and make this happen soon.

C). Institutional framework for coordinating and collaboration, for peer learning and review based for best practices and group action. The SEDC, or the southeast governor’s forum, or perhaps some kind of quasi centralized political union of the five states to coordinate and collaborate. This is a conversation that the governors must have.

From an economic point of view, the southeast is already beyond a common marketing. It is part of what we call in economics, an economic and monetary union called Nigeria. But what is missing, is a robust agenda to greatly lower the intra state and intra-regional transaction cost and cost of doing business through massive infrastructure transformation and security cum rule of law.

So, give us this plan to deliver the Marshall Plan equivalent for the South East and within five years and in 25 years time- 2050, South East will be Nigeria’s sustainable economic power house. South East is not an Island. Economically speaking, South East is an insignificant part of the national and local economy. Our wealth is largely outside the South East. The world won’t adjust to us, rather, we will be largely be impacted by the trends elsewhere, or we opportunistically position to take advantage of the headways around the world. Balance grandiose aspirations to reality informed by existing bottlenecks and its scalability and investment as well as rigorous assessment of emerging opportunities.

I end by reiterating one two words- first on financing. Lets be clear. The plan you are drawing will largely be funded by the federal government and the private sector. It will be the Marshall for the South East. We are expecting dedicated, focused, quantum resource in a short period of time. And we are hoping, Mr. President, before you leave office in 2031, the South East would have received full funding for its own Marshall Plan.

The European Marshall Plan was executed over a four year period. Of course, there are others, including diaspora funding and so on and so forth. On our path as Governors, we also collaborate and cooperate. We are the owners and beneficiaries. For example, if you are doing your rail line, the states will have to provide the right of way.

In Anambra, we hired the CPCS of Canada, and we have developed an internal railway master plan for Anambra; but now we are waiting for the funding- one point something billion US Dollars.

We need to come together. And so, the South East Governor’s Forum will be very instrumental in giving life to this programme. I have seen many of these kind of plans with just 10 percent impact. This one must not be another of such plan. This is an agenda with a deadline, and speed is of essence.

Give us a master plan for the South East, not too much grammar, no fancy drafts and charts or grandiose feel-good targets. The question most people in the South East are asking is; ‘when will the rail line crisscross the South East? When will the gas pipeline crisscross the South East. You can get these things to happen.

Don’t give us a 500-page plan, give us a rail line. Don’t give us a 300-page plan, give us a gas pipeline, give us the highways. Fix the federal highways around the highways. Invest in our regional security. That’s the only way, the over 35 million ndi Igbo will feel that this particular opportunity is not wasted.

Thank you very much.