By EDISON Okereke
The Director of Abuja School of Social and Political Thoughts, Dr Sam Amadi, has called on the South East people to participate actively in political activities of the Federal Government to enable them remain relevant in economic and political considerations in the country.
He warned that the negligence the people accord the voter registration and/or revalidation, census, and other civic obligations will put them and the zone in a greater disadvantage in the national policies.
He made these known in Owerri, the Imo State capital recently while interacting with journalists.
The Ngor Okpala-born former governorship aspirant in Imo State, stressed that the negligence and a lack of foresight are dangerous in the development efforts of the zone.
He maintained that the people should always take part in and align themselves with the policies and activities of government in order not to remain behind.
Amadi, who said his interest is the welfare of the people, therefore, called on the traditional, religious institutions, politicians, corporate bodies, nongovernmental organizations, and everybody in the zone who have attained the voting age of 18 and above to register and be counted in the scheme of things.
“So the numbers are important for political consideration. South East is becoming a political minority, but our leaders do not know. Our South East political leaders are more concerned with winning local elections. Even when registration is only twenty people, and ten people vote, they must declare a winner. The first thing is that we should know that our nonparticipation does not nullify an election once an election has been declared.”
Describing the voter aparty as self-defeatist, the policy strategist, law and governance expert, emphasized that “whether you boycott oh! or not it doesn’t affect the outcome.”
Noting the voter’s list is also used in international political and economic consideration, he said, “I think it is urgent that something be done to increase voter registration in the South East. What it does is that politicians are disregarding their constituency. Develoment in democracy is based on prospects of votes.
Amadi, the South East patron who holds a doctorate degree (SJD) in law from the Harvard University, Cambridge Massachusetts and a Master of Public Administration (MPA), among other scholarly degrees, explained, “I’m worried that our political negligence, lack of foresight will make our zone not just politically irrelevant but developmentally irrelevant, such that the only developments we can see are those the state governors can produce,” he stated.
He expressed the hope that if the South East maximizes its voter density which is huge enough, it will give the people sufficient advantages.
“So what we want to do is to encourage South East leaders, community leaders, Churches, NGOs, to fight more to increase voter registration. I know that South East feels marginalized but the answer to being marginalized is more political participation no, more, no less.”
He, however, took a swipe at some South East leaders whom he accused of deceiving the people a lot. “They don’t care as long as they win elections. They don’t think about how South East is going, compared to other regions. This is really what pains me. How is the South East doing?
“Look at our roads! South East has the worst road network. In fact, it was a tug of war to get the second Niger bridge. My worry is that the Igbo have the numbers.”
“Yes our people are tired of bad governance; yes, our people are marginalized; yes, our votes didn’t count. There was so much rigging, but the answer to all these problems is actually more participation, no more, no less. Let’s get more voters and hope that this time things will be better,” he said.
