…Says canvassers of new state for S’East should got back to 2014 confab to avoid creating problem for us

By Steve Oko

Two-time Minister for Education and Health respectively, Professor Ihechukwu Madubuike, has hailed the move by the House of Representatives to create additional state for the South East to bring the zone at par with other zones in the country.

He, however, advised the promoters of the Bill to consult with the recommendations of the 2014 Constitutional Conference of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, so as not to create needless friction in the South East.

The elder statesman who was a delegate in both the ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo constitutional conference of 2005, and Jonathan’s 2014 confab, said that both confabs had already agreed on a consensus parity state for South East.

He said:” Definitely there is a crying need for an additional state for the South East. We have already dealt with that in both 2005 Obasanjo confab and Jonathan’s confab in 2014. We agreed on a consensus state.

” So, these lawmakers have to find out what is there before they begin their own exercise. For them to do anything meaningful, they should go to confab report so that they won’t create a problem for us in the South East. They should find out what has already been agreed.

” What they have done hasn’t made any reference to the historical and monumental decision we took at the constitutional conference based on consensus.”

According to him, there was an agreement that each of the existing five states in the South East will donate some Local Government Areas for the first state to be created as parity state for the zone before any other consideration would be made.

He also added that other proposals that had strong support then included Adada State for Nsukka people of Enugu State, and Aba State respectively.

” Orlu State wasn’t among the ones that we proposed. This one is a bastardisation of what we proposed. We said we should have Equity/Etiti State.

” So, what they need to do is to go back to both Obasanjo and Jonathan’s confabs and see what has been proposed, where we talked about a parity state or Equity State or Etiti State with Okigwe as a capital that will include Awgu and Oji River from Enugu State; Aninri and Ivo from Ebonyi State; Umunneochi and Isuikwuato in Abia State; Okigwe and Mbano from Imo State; plus Umunze in Anambra State.”