By Mark Okoye II
Over the past 24 hours, the South East has once again found itself caught between emotion and reality following the latest court judgement involving Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. Predictably, some voices, including a few political actors and influencers from our region, have rushed forward with calls for political solutions and unconditional release, presenting this as the only pathway to peace and progress.
But if we are to be honest with ourselves, not sentimental, not performative, not opportunistic, we must admit a difficult truth:
The crisis that shook the South East did not begin in a courtroom, and it will not end in a courtroom.
I say this as someone who lived in the South East throughout its darkest years. I witnessed, directly and without filters:
• young men misled and radicalized;
• people murdered and beheaded, families grieving;
• businesses shuttered;
• communities turned into ghost towns;
• kidnappings and extortion spiraling;
• children forced out of school and economic actvity crippled on sit-at-home days;
• and an entire region, once known for its nightlife, weekend economy, celebration of culture and people, suffocated economically, socially, and psychologically
The people who carried the greatest burden were not politicians or commentators speaking from afar. They were ordinary men and women: traders trying to make ends meet, transport workers going about their daily routine, farmers working to feed their families, diasporas returning home after years of being away, job-seeking youths who simply desired peace and economic opportunities, families trying to raise children in a safe and promising homeland.
This is why we must be careful not to reduce a complex regional trauma to a single individual, or to assume that the release of one person, however symbolic, automatically guarantees safety, prosperity, or justice.
We must centre our analysis on the real victims of the past five years. And we must remember what they endured. At the heart of the matter is this:
The South East’s real crisis is underdevelopment, and the South East’s real solution is development and economic growth underpinned by investment in hard and soft infrastructure.
Not slogans. Not emotional shortcuts. Not political theatrics.
The region urgently needs:
modern industrial parks; rail and road connectivity; reliable power; agro-processing and storage infrastructure; youth skills and enterprise programmes; Diaspora-led investment vehicles such as SEIC; a regional economic and logistics corridor linking us to opportunities beyond our borders across other regions and potentially other african nations under AfCFTA; predictable governance and security; and coordinated state-federal development frameworks.
This is what restores dignity. This is what creates opportunity. This is what ends insecurity and instability in a sustainable way.
Those insisting that Mr. President must release Kanu to “win the South East votes in 2027” risk trivializing the deeper work required. Peace and prosperity are not built on shortcuts. They are built through investment, stability, and a clear pathway to growth.
Let us be guided by what we lived through, not by what is convenient to say on social media.
We all remember how sit-at-home crippled livelihoods. We all remember how fear became a daily companion. We all remember parents praying for their children’s safety on the simplest errands.
Our people deserve better. Our people deserve peace, dignity, and opportunity, not endless fear and forced shutdowns.
Mr. President does not owe the South East symbolic appeasement. He owes the South East, just as he owes every region, the commitments articulated in the Renewed Hope Agenda: agricultural modernization, infrastructure expansion, job creation, industrialization, improved security, and strengthened regional collaboration.
The South East today enjoys relative peace, and our Governors together with the Federal security agencies have continued to work to safeguard the stability we are regaining. But peace alone is not the destination. It is only the foundation. The real task before us is to translate this stability into accelerated development.
We must be courageous enough to say clearly:
What the South East needs is not appeasement. What the South East needs is investment.
If we truly seek a future different from our recent past, our political conversation must evolve, from grievance to growth, from sentiment to strategy, from emotional theatre to measurable progress.
This, in my view, is the type of politics the South East deserves and will endure. This is the realism the moment demands.
This is the leadership ethos our people are increasingly embracing.
Let us rise to that challenge.
Mark Okoye II
MD/CEO, South East Development Commission (SEDC)