Evangelist Elliot Ugochukwu-Uko is the Founder of Igbo Youth Movement (IYM). He is also the Secretary of Eastern Consultative Assembly (ECA) and Deputy Secretary of Igbo Leaders of Thought (ILT). In this interview with OLUDARE RICHARDS, he speaks on the protracted political crisis in the South East region, which has negatively impacted the economy of the zone and made life brutish. He points out how the crisis can be resolved, warning that the delay in addressing the problem is not helping the country.

The South East has gradually metamorphosed into a totally different land within the past decade or so. What is your take on the situation in the region?
It depends on the perception of the individual. I agree with you that so much water has passed under the bridge. The South East has an admirable history. A great but silent revolution spearheaded by visionary leadership stood the region out 80 years ago. The region stood out between 1940 and 1965. Within those years, the people were transformed from bottle washers, messengers and cooks to clerks, store keepers and retailers. They embraced education with both hands, caught up and overtook others by building schools through community efforts and granting scholarships to bright students. That 25-year leap hasn’t been replicated anywhere in the world.

The first coup put them in trouble; the second coup decapitated them and the very brutal war crushed them completely. Their resurgence from 1970 moving forward shocked everyone. The failure of their political class to appropriately handle Ralph Uwazurike’s Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) from 1999 moving forward sowed the seed of what is happening in the region today.

The region’s leaders failed to understand that the solution lies only in identifying why hundreds of thousands of mostly youngsters were following Ralph and paying monthly dues in the belief that they would soon have a new country where they would be treated with dignity.

I was privileged to have an intense relationship with the man who led Ndigbo through the war and I believe his postulation that the solution to the agitation was to draw the agitators close to monitor their decisions. Keeping them away could turn them into loose cannons. He met with Ralph every Sunday at his Enugu residence.

https://guardian.ng/politics/genuine-efforts-at-addressing-anger-fueling-agitation-in-south-east-will-restore-normalcy/