Uma Eleazu advocates ‘strategic autonomy’ for South East

Uma Eleazu, a renowned Economist and elder statesman, has advocated for the concept of “Strategic Autonomy”, where the Igbo of South East will control the economy of Nigeria from within as against agitation for a separate country.

Eleazu made this known in Nvosi, Isiala Ngwa South country home of Governor Alex Otti when he paid him a courtesy visit.

Consequently, he called on the governors of the South East states to come together and work to create a conducive environment for such to be realised.

The elder statesman said he was confident that Governor Otti would do well in his present job because he had demonstrated capacity as a former bank chief executive officer, adding that the people of Abia State needed somebody like him.

“We had discussed many things even when he was not running for office. When he came out the first time, in 2014, he came to my house in Ohafia with his team, and we said, yes. These were the elite of the society – technocrats, professionals, intellectuals and business people.

“We said we needed somebody like him. He has been a banker, he’s an economist, understands development, he can reach out to those who have the financial houses and all that. But unfortunately, he didn’t get it at that time.

“This time again, he came out once more and was successful. I am confident that he will do well because of his background. He has run a bank successfully,” the elder statesman, who is the Chairman, Board of Trustees of Anya Ndigbo, an inner caucus helping to bring a reform to Ohanaeze Ndigbo, declared.

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“This is my first time of coming to sit down with him to chat because I couldn’t come to the inauguration. I called him and told him that I wouldn’t be able to make it to Umuahia. I wasn’t feeling too well then, you know my age (93).

“I have had a heart-to-heart chat with him and I told him that I’m available to offer whatever development advice that he would require of me. When I was with UNDP, I was a private sector development adviser and I worked in Kenya, Uganda, and for five years I worked to make the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) a household name.

“So, we talked about the development, strategy for all of the South East,” Eleazu, who has been a longtime friend of the governor, said.

Otti had in a write-up in 2021 on his column, ‘Outside the Box’, paid a tribute to Eleazu, describing him as “among the last of a vanishing breed”, adding that “Nigeria has only a handful of his kind who practise what they preach.”
He thanked the nonagenarian for coming to felicitate with him and prayed for good health and strength for him.