Don't Burn Your Homes, Okechukwu Pleads With Compatriots

Former law maker and member of the House of Representatives, Hon Tobi Okechukwu, has called on his South East compatriots not to burn the region in protest over whatever wrong that may have been wrought against them.

Okechukwu, currently the Chief of Staff to the Deputy Speaker of the lower legislative chamber, made the call while interacting with FreshNews in his Abuja office.

According to him, it is wrong for anyone to burn down his or her house for reasons of any discomforting challenge.

“No matter what the challenges of life is, the greatest asset you have is to understand your situation. You can never, because there is a rat in your house, burn your house, nobody goes through self immolation, you don’t destroy yourself because you are hurting,” he admonished.

Hon Okechukwu also implore those vexed by ongoing disaffection to be mindful of the consequential effects of the ensuing protest actions which he described as counter productive to the interest of the region.

He urged the people to wake up to the fact that they must put first the general need not to aggravate the problems, noting that overcome prevailing challengings should be prioritized.

“What you do is to buckle up, wake up, do the needful and you will overcome the circumstance. Insecurity in the South East is quite too consequential,”

He explained that insecurity in the region has made it impossible for Ndi Igbos, particularly those in the Diaspora, to return home for their traditional celebrations. According to him, the challenge has made it impossible for diaspora inflow to come in. The result, he submitted, is that the region’s erstwhile booming economy is now practically in ruins.

“Insecurity in the South East is quite too consequential. Our people don’t come home to do their celebrations any more. People who come from overseas with their you know, diaspora inflow is completely absent. So the economy of the South East is gone. Markets are gone,” he pointed out.

Explaining further, Hon Okechukwu noted that insecurity has created a state of disfunction in the region, which according to research, has resulted in huge economic and financial losess with far-reaching effects on not only the region’s GDP but also the entire country. 

“Insecurity has created a state of disfunction in the South East. At the universal level you can see that the man hour burnt every Monday through the sit-at-home is huge. When you see traders and people in transportation, they lose close to N10bn every Monday. When you talk about other trades and other things, the totality, based on research that has been done, they lose over N4trn. So it's a huge economic drain on Nigeria.

“And when you want to talk about the consequential impact on homes, on communities, people who, ordinarily should write exams on Monday don't. People, who ordinarily, should attend school on Monday don't…And then you find out that police stations, markets, people's sources of livelihood, have been destroyed…”

He however, assured that all hope is not lost as the search for peace will soon receive a huge boost with the launch of the Peace In the South East initiative, anchored by Rt Hon Kalu.

Hon Okechukwu, who was effusive in pouring encomiums on the Rt Hon Kalu for the laudable initiative, urged the federal government to key into the initiative by quickly embarking on a Marshal Plan that deliberately seeks to restore the South East to its former glory.

He also called on Governmental and Non-Governmental Organizations, NGOs, to quickly consider initiating far-reaching amelioration programmes in the region  aimed at getting the people back to their normal lives.

“I think that, for instance the efforts being pioneered by the Deputy Speaker on Peace in the South East Project. I’m sure it will go a long way in ameliorating the challenges of our people through a number of pillars-through Agriculture, humanitarian interventions and others. And these are things he cannot do alone. He has to do it in partnership with government and with government agencies. 

"So there is need for some level, some serious inroads into the South East, to get the people to, people who are devastated to get back to their normal lives. And I’m sure once they are able to get back their normal lives, they will be able to fend for themselves again,” he urged