The Senator representing Anambra Central Senatorial Zone, Chief Victor Umeh, has advised governors of the five South East states to stop competing for the best governor award but collaborate for development of the region.
He urged them to re-invent the development blueprint of the premier of the defunct South East region, Chief M. I. Okpala to collectively unlock the economic, industrial and agricultural potentials of the region.
He spoke at the “Inaugural Roundtable and Rebranding of Anambra Times” held in Awka yesterday.
He underscored the huge human and material endowments of the South East region, stating that the current development challenges the region was experiencing could be reversed if the governors stop bickering and competing against one another but start collaborating on critical development areas including education, industry, commerce and agriculture to develop the region.
“Our governors should come together, hold regular meetings, work together as brothers so that our region will develop; let them go and recover the late M. I. Okpala’s development blueprint. They should stop competing for the best governor of the South East; not to be individual champions,” Umeh stated.
He also urged candidates of political parties and their supporters in the November 8, 2025 Anambra State governorship election to avoid any act that could turn the state into a war zone.
He rather urged them to put the development and survival of the state uppermost and be patriotic in their campaigns.
Representative of the host of the event and member representing Ogbaru federal constituency, Hon. Victor Afam Ogene, immediate past Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK), Awka, Prof Frank -Collins Okafor commended the vision of the publisher of rebranded “Anambra Times” to “Alpha Times”, a former commissioner for information in Anambra State, Chief Paul Nwosu.
He called on the governors of the South East region to embrace the current campaign for transition to renewable energy.
Guest speaker, a former Rector of the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Prof Godwin Onu, urged the South East zone to collaborate in critical development areas that would develop the region.
He suggested that the governors should form the “Alliance of Five States” irrespective of their political parties to collaborate in critical areas, particularly in education, industry, commerce, oil and gas, agriculture and security to develop the region.
He said South East Development Commission might not be able to address development challenges of the region until the governors discard their individual political party platforms, drop politics and establish a framework that would drive collaborative development initiatives for the zone.
