North Has Enough Land For RUGA – Okorie

Amechi Ekpeneru

The National Chairman of the United Progressive Party (UPP) has advised the federal government to  look towards the North in its desire to provide a settlement for Fulani herdsmen.

Okorie in an interview urged Ohanaeze, the Igbo socio-cultural organization to sit down with the South-East governors to come to a common ground on the contentious issue.

According to him, “For me, the RUGA issue is even outside the purview of Ohanaeze as a socio-cultural organization. The issue of land is not in the hand of a socio-cultural body whether pan Igbo or not. 

“The issue of land lies with the state governments. The Ohanaeze leadership should sit quietly with the South-East governors and tell them what they ought to do in that regard. 

“But even without the input of Ohanaeze, the governors did the right thing by making it clear that the land in Igboland is not enough to provide for a RUGA settlement. If you want to do RUGA or National Livestock programme, you have enough land in the North to even turn the North into the beef capital of the world.

He nevertheless said the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has stepped up infrastructural development in the South-East region.

“The infrastructural developments in the South-East are being stepped up unlike before. For the very first time since the war ended, a federal project was started and completed by his administration. I am talking about the public power project at Ariaria area of Aba, Abia state.

“Many people may not know that since the war ended in 1970, no project – whether under the military or the 16 years of PDP government, was ever started and completed in the South-East. 

“Here we are, within his first tenure, the construction of over five hundred billion Naira Enyimba Economic City in Aba, Abia state, has taken off. The idea is to turn Aba into a Dubai in Igboland. Look at the speed at which the Second Niger Bridge is being built. The President said he will drive through that bridge before completing his second tenure, and it’s being projected that by 2022, that bridge will be completed. 

“Look at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Mausoleum which was abandoned by previous administrations including the PDP. But that project has been completed and commissioned under the Buhari administration. 

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