Politics:
Getting A Sixth State For South-East Is A Work In Progress, Say Umahi
The creation of an additional state for the region has been on the front burner in recent months.
FILE PHOTO: Minister of Works, Dave Umahi
The Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, says there is progress in the bid to create a sixth state for the South-East region of the country.
Umahi spoke where he featured on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, where he argued that President Bola Tinubu’s administration has the interest of the South-East at heart.
“The president has fully integrated the South-East. Remember, we had the Naval Chief; now we have the Air Force Chief. The good intention is that the president has taken the entire nation as one united family,” Umahi said on the show.
“The South-East is not asking for treatment better than others. We just want to be fairly treated, and I want to thank the National Assembly. We are talking about getting the 6th state in the South-East. It’s a work in progress. It’s also what we are telling our people because equity demands that we should have what other people have.”
The creation of an additional state for the region has been on the front burner in recent months. There are proposals for the state to be created out of the current Delta State (Delta North).
“Of course, Anioma State should be created as the sixth South-East state. It’s the only state that will be viable to be created,” Senator Orji Kalu said in the March 3, 2025, edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today.
“Anioma are Igbos and they never said they are not Igbos. The sixth South-East state should be created, and it should be from Anioma.”
Umahi also spoke about President Bola Tinubu’s chances in the 2027 elections in the South-East. In the 2023 presidential election, Peter Obi, who contested under the Labour Party (LP) then, swept all five states of the region.
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With months left to the 2027 election, Umahi expressed confidence that Tinubu will win all states in the South-East, citing marginalisation of the region as the reason for the failure of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 elections.
According to him, however, Tinubu has corrected that.
“I will not blame the South-East in the last election because, virtually, we were not fairly treated by the past administration. Service chiefs, we got none; major ministerial portfolios, we got none. And so, the marginalisation continued, and they even increased at that point. And so you will not totally blame them for that,” the former Ebonyi governor said.
“But now, the story is totally different. I’m the Minister of Works; we have never had a Minister of Works before. We have a Minister of Foreign Affairs; we have a Minister of Science and Industry. We are very happy with the appointments we’ve got. They’re very happy. Now, we have done quite a lot.
