Former Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim and the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe, have decried the rising unemployment rate and widespread violence in the South-East.

Messrs Anyim and Achebe lamented the region’s deteriorating economic and security conditions during the South-East Security and Economy Summit, which kicked off in Owerri on Thursday.

The theme of the two-day summit is ‘South East Beyond 2023, Time for a Reset’.

Mr Anyim, the summit chairman, said the event aimed at sending a clear message to the diaspora and Nigerians.

“We are here to send a clear message to our people at home and abroad, and our fellow Nigerians that the Igbo nation strives to become more cohesive in order to be more effective in contributing its quota in the search for national consensus on equity, peace and development,” stated Mr Anyim.

The former Senate president noted that the summit was not intended to dish out directives to the governors but to create a platform for sharing new ideas and understanding areas of collaboration and integration.

Mr Anyim, however, said since 1999, the attention of governments had shifted, adding that “no government in the South-East had considered it needful to service industrial corridors and attract investors to set up factories.”

He stated, “The implication is that the unemployment rate had multiplied and could be the reason for the upsurge of crime and criminality in the zone. We need to rethink our developmental priorities.”

Mr Anyim called for re-engineering the entrepreneurship sector and realigning the educational system with regional needs.

Speaking on behalf of the South-East traditional rulers, Mr Achebe commended the South-East governors for organising the summit but noted that “the complex security situation in the zone and the economic strangulation of the zone, arising from the insecurity, have greatly affected major markets in the area.”

The Igbo leader expressed the need to set a peculiar agenda for the people shared by all stakeholders beyond political divides.

The summit’s organising committee chairwoman, Chris Anyanwu, stressed that the meeting would set the agenda for the region’s accelerated economic transformation, social harmony and effective security.

(NAN)