A prominent civil society voice, Mr Okechukwu Nwanguma, who is the Executive Director of RULAAC, has issued a scathing indictment of the political elite in Nigeria’s Southeast region, asserting that the area’s most “crippling obstacle” is the “irresponsible political leadership at home,” not federal marginalisation.
In a recent and strongly worded statement, Nwanguma argued that while an “unmistakable agenda” exists at the federal level to politically sideline the Igbo people, the “most crippling obstacle facing Ndi Igbo today is irresponsible political leadership at home.”
Nwanguma described the current crop of leaders, including governors, legislators, and political elites, as being “irresponsible, self-serving, visionless, and profoundly unpatriotic.”
“Our governors, legislators, and political elites lack vision. They lack courage. They lack a sense of duty,” he stated. He accused them of prioritising personal wealth over public service, turning “public office into a personal enterprise.”
“They have allowed the Southeast to decay while they enrich themselves, build empires elsewhere, and pretend to be victims of federal marginalisation,” Nwanguma declared.
The activist called for a radical shift in the region’s focus, urging citizens to redirect their energy away from separatist movements toward civic demands for accountability.
“The enormous amount of energy being channelled into agitations for secession should be redirected toward demanding accountability from those who claim to lead us,” he stressed. “Instead of fighting ourselves or destroying our future, we should be confronting the politicians who have stolen our present.”
Nwanguma insisted that leaders must be compelled—through “pressure, by civic mobilisation, and by unwavering public demand”—to be transparent and responsible with public funds. He specifically demanded that federal allocations, internally generated revenue, and foreign development aid be used for public infrastructure and services, such as building roads, schools, and hospitals and establishing industries and functional local governments.
In conclusion, Nwanguma acknowledged the talent, creativity, and resilience of the Igbo people but lamented the high cost of poor governance.
“Ndi Igbo do not lack talent, creativity, or resilience. What we lack and what has cost us dearly is leadership that actually cares about our collective destiny,” he said, demanding that it is now “time to change that.”
