Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah, has called upon South-Eastern stakeholders to prioritize the development of critical regional infrastructure, such as railways and roads, to foster a unified market and enhance socio-economic prosperity within the region.
In a statement released on Thursday, Governor Mbah emphasized the importance of adopting a multifaceted approach to address security concerns. He suggested measures like establishing a common security command and control center, enhancing inter-agency collaboration, and implementing non-violent strategies like economic revitalization and job creation.
Governor Mbah, speaking at the South-East Economic and Security Summit held in Owerri, highlighted the significance of transportation and logistics in driving economic growth in the South-East. He emphasized that an expanded road network connecting cities across Anambra, Abia, Imo, Enugu, and Ebonyi would be instrumental in reducing poverty, unemployment, and associated criminal activities in the region.
“How do we build a ring road that connects all the major cities in the South-East so that we can seamlessly encourage those who are producing and those who are providing services to distribute their products and services across the different cities of the South-East seamlessly?
“These are things we must be intentional about if we are going to deal with unemployment and insecurity in the South-East.
“Since we now have railways on the Concurrent List, there is nothing stopping us. So, if we pick one or two projects from this summit that we can say as a people of the South-East, we want to make sure that we execute them, I believe we can achieve them and they are going to have a huge spillover effect on our economy and security,” the governor stated.