In its 15 years of existence, the South-East Governors Forum (SEGF) has been widely regarded as ineffective in fulfilling the objectives that necessitated its establishment, and in a region in dire need of strategic leadership, LAWRENCE NJOKU reports.
Recently, a Coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the South-East expressed disappointment with governors of the region, accusing them of negligence in the face of challenges besetting the area and its people.
The coalition, while querying the essence of the South-East Governors’ Forum (SEGF), insisted that the body constitutes a disappointment, having failed to meet the people’s expectations in the area of leadership and reassuring them of better days ahead.
The latest round of condemnation followed the forum’s alleged silence and inaction in the wake of the public outcry that recently greeted the poor performance of candidates from the region in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
The 17 CSOs that make up the coalition and other concerned citizens issued a statement they titled, “JAMB Crisis: The Silence That Speaks Volumes”, roundly criticising the governors for allegedly failing to stand up for the people.
The JAMB impasse is not the first time that the usefulness of the South-East Governors Forum has been called into question. On several occasions, many wondered about the essence of the group, which, before now, was meeting monthly in Enugu, but no longer has a fixed time frame for its meetings. Months now go by without a hint regarding whether the governors are meeting or not.
Formed in 2010, its membership spans the five governors of the region, even as the body remains a platform that could enable the helmsmen to discuss issues affecting them, coordinate policies, and work together for the progress of the region, especially in the areas of security, economic development, infrastructure, social welfare, as well as advocacy on the region’s needs and concerns with the federal government.
Among other things, the forum was established to offer the various governors of the region the opportunity to pool ideas and resources together to confront common socio-economic challenges and undertake projects that will uplift the well-being of the people of the region.
But 15 years on, many conclude that it has not delivered on its mandate or impacted Ndigbo politically, economically, or socially, going by their activities and a litany of unfulfilled promises.
A former governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi was chairman of the forum until he left office on 17 March 2014. A few days after he handed over to his successor, the governors on March 9, 2014, met in Enugu and nominated former Abia State governor, Theodore Orji, as their chairman.
Orji supervised the forum until February 26, 2017, when the former governor of Ebonyi State, now Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, emerged as its chairman. The incumbent governor of Imo State, Chief Hope Uzodimma, took over as the chairman in June 2023.
Although the governors made Enugu their administrative headquarters, nothing has been put on the ground to justify this fact, except irregular meetings that only ended up producing communiqués that were never implemented.
During Obi’s time as its chairman, the governors held an economic summit in Enugu, where far-reaching ideas on how to develop the region were reached. Part of the resolutions that the summit came up with then was improving cooperation among states in the region to identify areas of economic advantage, especially in agriculture, commerce and industry.
The governors also agreed to review certain obstacles to trade and investments in the region, while pulling resources to revamp some moribund industries in the region to create jobs for their youth.
But as laudable as those resolutions were, they never saw the light of day.
In 2017, the David-Umahi-led administration initiated a bold move to give the forum more visibility. In the first meeting he held, which was attended by officials of the British Department for International Development (DFID), they resolved, with the support of the DFID, to set up a secretariat at the old Government Lodge in Enugu.
Umahi, who announced the development during a briefing after the meeting, added that the secretariat would have a full complement of staff to coordinate the activities of the forum and provide support and direction to the governors.
Umahi had added that to make the secretariat functional, each state was expected to contribute to the staffing. In that regard, Enugu contributed the Director General; Ebonyi State produced the Director of Finance and Administration; Anambra State brought the Director of Media and Communication, while Abia State brought the Director of Projects and Imo State, the Deputy Director General.
Despite all the elaborate narrative, setting up the secretariat at the Old Government Lodge never came to reality, and the secretariat staff who operated from a room in the Enugu Government House ended up being owed salary arrears for several months. While some of the staff left due to several months of unpaid salaries, the governors of Enugu and Ebonyi States reassigned duties to their staff.
When insecurity worsened in 2021, the governors met in Owerri, the Imo State capital, and resolved to form a joint security outfit, codenamed Ebubeagu.
Umahi’s brother, General Obi Umahi (Retd), was appointed as the head of the security committee and saddled with the task of working out its operational guidelines.
A few months after the committee took off, Umahi resigned, alleging that the governors abandoned the committee, as neither office space nor funds were provided for the members to operate. It was the withdrawal of Umahi that put paid to the formation of a regional security outfit, as each of the governors devised other means of providing security cover to residents of their various states.
Also, after one of the meetings at the Government House, Enugu, Umahi had announced that the forum was poised to improve the healthcare conditions of the people of the region, and also boost medical tourism by setting up a world-standard hospital in Enugu State.
He said the hospital would be equipped with the best medical facilities and support staff to ensure it receives patronage across the world.
There were also plans to link the entire zone by providing access roads to boost the transportation of goods and services, stressing that it would add to the agricultural yields and production of the farmers, as they would no longer suffer from deplorable roads.
These promises and many others are yet to be fulfilled. It is also not certain how the governors’ forum would impact the region going forward.
At the July 2, 2024, meeting in Enugu (the last meeting of the forum since Uzodimma assumed leadership), the governors resolved to tackle insecurity in the region by interfacing with President Bola Tinubu, as well as reviewing the report of the 2023 South-East Security and Economic Summit with actionable plans. They also resolved to meet with the federal government to secure the release of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. The visit to the Presidency and the road map to tackling insecurity are still being awaited nearly a year later.
Soon after her appointment as the Director General of the Forum last year, Senator Uche Ekwunife met with some top government officials on maritime development, transportation infrastructure, and economic transformation of the region.
While reporting the outcome of her meeting with the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, she stated that it was to harness the region’s maritime resources for sustainable fish farming, seafood processing, and ecotourism to boost food security, job creation, and revenue generation.
She further reported that her meeting with the Minister of Transportation, Sen Sa’id Alkali, was to push for the completion and expansion of the Eastern Narrow-Gauge Railway project, ensuring full connectivity across the South-East, as well as dredging the River Niger to mitigate flooding and enhance economic activities.
It is not certain if any follow-up actions are being made to ensure that promises made and programmes initiated during those visits materialise. This is more so as Ekwunife, who initiated these moves, had since accepted the nomination as the running mate of the APC governorship candidate in Anambra State for the November 8 election.
For the Executive Director of Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Ibuchukwu Ezike, the SEGF adds no value to the lives of the southeasterners, stressing that nobody can point to tangible achievements of the forum that Ndigbo are benefiting.
“We are talking about insecurity; we are talking about restiveness; infrastructure deficit, and what have you. What have they achieved with their collaboration with the federal government in their various years of existence? Nothing! There’s large-scale unemployment in the South-East; the cost of living here is very high, and there’s hunger in this place, even with the fertile South-East land. So, of what relevance is the forum after 15 years if the members cannot collaborate to work for the people who voted for them? What has been going on in their meeting is to discuss their welfare and not the welfare of Ndigbo. They have had chairmen who span across the region, but none of their key decisions have ever been implemented to the benefit of the people. That Forum is a sad commentary,” he stated
The President of Njiko Igbo Forum, Okechukwu Obioha, agrees with Ezike, stressing: “I also believe that Ndigbo do not cherish such a group. What is the forum all about, that we cannot pinpoint what they have done before now? We don’t know what they are doing. It is a ceremonial organisation where state governors from the region meet with one another,” he stressed
“This forum has not added any value to Ndigbo. If the forum was doing something before now, we would have seen what it has done, and know how to advise them, but we don’t know whether they have been there for 15 years, which is not 15 days. Nigerians know about the South-West Governors Forum, they know about the Northern Governors Forum, but the South-East Governors Forum exists only by name. They are strange bedfellows who see themselves as enemies. So that is the challenge.”
Dr Cletus Eze, a policy analyst, insisted, however, that though no tangible projects could be linked to the forum, the advocacy they had undertaken, such as calling attention to the dilapidated infrastructure in the region, had attracted national attention to them, but with marginal impact. Eze, a Director at Nuks Holding, Enugu, pointed at the construction of the second Niger bridge, some ongoing road projects in the region, and even the reconstruction of the Enugu airport as some of the actions made possible by the advocacy of the governors.
“The governors may not have jointly undertaken any physical project in the zone, but they are not relenting in talking about challenges facing the region. Their forum had oftentimes been attended by political leaders and Ohanaeze Ndigbo. Nevertheless, I can say that they need to be more focused on tackling issues surrounding the region, because nobody will be happy with a 15-year-old still carrying about as a toddler. They should emulate the South-West Governors’ Forum,” he stated.
In faulting the performance of the South-East Governors’ Forum, a legal practitioner, James Egwu, insisted that “in 15 years, the forum has not served the people’s interests in many ways that it was expected to.”
The Anambra State-based lawyer told The Guardian: “Whatever thing the governors are achieving individually at this time could have been far better if there is a desire to work together as a group seeking to radically improve the fortunes of a region that is struggling with immense challenges.
“The various political cleavages that define their actions have hindered their performance as a forum. Each time they came together to talk, they ended up employing politics in whatever decision they arrived at. So, if the forum must work for the people, those who are members should make the people their focus,” he stated.
