Widespread enthusiasm has greeted the establishment of the South East Development Commission, SEDC, by the people of the geopolitical zone.
It is trite that the South East geopolitical region suffers infrastructure deficit, especially, critical infrastructure. To illustrate, the South East has no functional inland port facility despite its proximity to the sea.
The Onitsha inland port has remained moribund despite huge Federal Government investment there.
It is pertinent to ask whether the rail line in the South East is functional? One may ask: how many trains come to Aba, an industrial and commercial hub of the South East?
Why is it that a heavy commercial city like Onitsha is not connected by rail. Nnewi, another industrial hub in the South East, suffers same fate
The fact that there is no functional refinery in an oil-producing region like the South East, is also unbelievable.
The recently established SEDC is therefore, expected to address the dearth of critical infrastructural in the South East.
We urge the new management of SEDC to prioritise the provision of critical infrastructure like electricity generating plants, railways, refineries, super high ways, among others.
This is the only way SEDC will justify the enthusiasm, the euphoria and high expectations of the people of the South East
following its establishment and take off recently.