The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has condemned the continued exclusion of the South-East from major national projects and key appointments, describing the pattern as unconstitutional and intolerable.

In a statement, HURIWA National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, lamented the South-East’s exclusion from the Federal Government’s N3.2 trillion irrigation project, spearheaded by the Ministry of Water Resources.

The association noted that the comprehensive irrigation scheme, benefiting other regions, completely disregards the South-East.

“This is just the latest in a series of deliberate exclusions of the South-East from national development initiatives. A region that is an integral part of the Nigerian federation cannot continue to be treated as a footnote,” Onwubiko said.

The exclusion was highlighted last week in the Senate when South-East senators, Kenneth Eze (Ebonyi State), Orji Uzor Kalu (Abia State), and Osita Ngwu (Enugu State) raised concerns.

Eze specifically criticised the omission of the Anambra–Imo River Basin Development Authority from the 2025 irrigation scheme, despite its eligibility. The motion was stepped down pending further discussions with the Federal Ministry of Water Resources.

HURIWA rejected Senate leadership’s suggestion that the exclusion might have been an administrative oversight, with Onwubiko asserting that when marginalisation occurs repeatedly across different sectors, it could no longer be dismissed as mere oversight.

The association also cited other instances of marginalisation, including lopsided federal appointments under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“Of the 49 ministers in his cabinet, only five are from the South-East, and just two hold substantive portfolios. In a recent batch of 21 new federal agency appointments, the region was allocated only two positions, despite being one of the six geopolitical zones,”Onwubiko noted.
HURIWA also highlighted historical grievances, including the exclusion of the South-East from the $2.8 billion Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano (AKK) gas pipeline during President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, and the allocation of narrow-gauge rail lines to other regions while they received standard-gauge infrastructure.

The association expressed concern over irregularities in this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results affecting students from the South-East, which the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) attributed to human error, but which HURIWA suspects may have been deliberate.

The group called on political leaders from the South-East to intensify their advocacy efforts. MEANWHILE, the South-East Communities Development Association and South-East Communities Development Association Cooperative Union (SECDA) have urged the South-East Development Commission (SEDC) and Federal Ministry of Regional Development to focus attention on the construction and rehabilitation of federal infrastructure in the zone.
They said this would ensure that infrastructure, such as airports and seaports in the zone, are brought to international standard and made viable.

Rising from their maiden conference in Enugu, they also urged the Commission to encourage industrialisation of the South-East to provide jobs for the youths and strengthen Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

The conference urged SEDC to strengthen the security architecture of the zone to secure the region against crimes and terrorism; a development they said threatens investment and industrialisation.

The National Coordinator of the group, Isidore Ehochi, had earlier urged the SEDC to see SECDA as a partner in progress in achieving her objectives.
“SECDA belongs to all the communities of the region, and by implementation, all the people of the region. Given this, we are also making a special appeal to the leadership of the South-East Development Commission to formally adopt SECDA as one of its useful community-based organisations for the implementation of some of its programmes that are targeted at the grassroots,” he stated.

Also speaking, the former President General, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, John Nnia Nwodo, stated that the Conference should serve as a wake-up call, “for all of us to support and advise the South-East Development Commission to produce an agenda that will support our state governments, the Federal and our many enterprising industrialists.”