Anambra State Governor Charles Soludo yesterday decried the situation in the South East, saying the region is “performing far below its potential”, saying the region “needs healing”.

Speaking during his swearing-in for a second term in Awka, he called for a change. He said: “The South East is performing far below its potential, and this must change for the sake of our future and the generations to come.

“Several years of self-inflicted but devastating war of attrition, together with the complicit silence of the graveyard, threatened to create a desolate homeland, setting the wheel of development several decades back.

“How did we get here? In the early 1960s, the Eastern region was reported as the fastest-growing subregion in the world. In 1979, an Igbo became the Vice-President and another the Speaker of the House of Representatives until 1983.

“From 1999 to 2007, we held the Senate presidency, etc. “How all these positions improved the lives of the women in Okpoko, Ngorkpoala, Akwete, Ezzamgbo, or Udenu remains a question for another day.

“But how did we get to the recent position where we resort to politics of lamentations? “The truth is that we have derailed. Perhaps someday, when we ask the hard questions, it may turn out that the problem may not lie in our stars, but within ourselves.

“Yes, it would be nice (at least emotionally) to see a man with a red cap at the Villa someday, but whether it would matter fundamentally for the average Igbo man is debatable.

“In 1998, I wrote an article in which I argued that it is possible for an Igbo man to be President, Vice-President, Senate President and Speaker of House of Representatives at the same time and yet Igboland/ordinary Igbo man may not fare better.