Editorial: Land and Leadership in Igboland: Time to sign development pact - ITREALMS

Editorial@ITREALMS ... making leadership SENSE with digital news!

Recently, Chief Allen Onyema revealed how land battles frustrated his efforts to site Air Peace’s multi-billion naira Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility in Enugu and Anambra. His lament is more than personal; it is an indictment of Ndigbo. And it is time we faced the truth without excuses: our greatest obstacle to development is ourselves.

Here was a once-in-a-generation project requiring 34,000 square meters, that is roughly 76 plots of land for infrastructure that would have created 50,000 jobs, saved Nigeria ₦360 billion in foreign exchange annually, and placed the South East on the global aviation map. Yet instead of rallying to secure it, communities bickered, families fought, and vested interests strangled the vision. Land disputes and selfish claims over airport lands became more important than regional progress. What a tragedy!

Let us stop deceiving ourselves. It is easy to point fingers at Abuja, Lagos, or other regions, but Onyema is right: when we gaze into the mirror, the real enemy stares back. While other regions bend over backwards to attract investment, we sabotage our own opportunities with greed, shortsightedness, and endless quarrels over land.

That said, Onyema himself is not beyond critique. Some argue that once he encountered resistance in Enugu and Anambra, he should have escalated the matter more forcefully by engaging the public, traditional institutions, or political leaders to galvanize support. Instead, the frustrations were quietly absorbed until Lagos became the default option.

By the time the story hit the media, the project had already slipped through Igboland’s fingers. A more transparent, consultative process might have placed greater pressure on spoilers and rallied the people behind the vision.

The painful result is that Lagos will now host the MRO, enjoying the jobs, the prestige, the foreign investment, and the multiplier effect. Meanwhile, Ala Igbo continues to wallow in lamentations about marginalization; yet we are complicit in marginalising ourselves.

It is time for a South-East Development Compact: a binding agreement across all five core Igbo states, namely Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo. Governors, traditional rulers, academia, communities, and business leaders must unite around clear rules for land use, investor protection, and dispute resolution. 

ALSO READ:

Editorial: Leadership, red line of hate speech and Abike Dabiri-Erewa - ITREALMS

Editorial - Digital Nigeria: A call for homegrown innovation - ITREALMS

Such a compact would send a strong signal that Igboland is open for investment, free of the land squabbles and intrigues that have scared away both local and foreign investors.

Land is not just an inheritance to guard jealously; it is a tool for development. Until Ndigbo learn to treat land as a platform for shared prosperity rather than a weapon of selfish claims, we will continue to watch transformative opportunities pass us by.

The lesson is brutal but clear: no one is holding us down but us. If we cannot unite to welcome progress, then we should stop crying foul when others seize the opportunities we squander.

Ndigbo must choose: remain trapped in the comfort of complaint, or rise with the discipline, foresight, and unity that development demands. The MRO that should have been in Enugu or Anambra is now in Lagos. That reality is not Onyema’s alone. It is ours.