Nigeria has a
choice to restructure or let the Igbos go. If the Federal Government does not
make the right choice, the Igbos will make it for themselves and Nigeria will
be the loser. I believe boundaries should be destroyed and not further created
in our time, which is why we ought to support restructuring, rather than
secession.
I have tried to measure the contribution of Igbos to the
development of the Nigerian project and the conclusion I have reached is that
Nigeria must do everything possible to get the Igbos to remain within the
Nigerian union. They (Igbos) have contributed unprecedentedly to the
development of the country in EVERY sector. They are an exceptional
nationality, comprising ‘born’ entrepreneurs, industrialists, academics,
adventurists, etc. A Nigeria without this set of people and their drive for
economic success might be boring and uninteresting.
In terms of their industrial spirit, the Igbo are probably the
only nationality that has built several industrial estates across Nigeria. In
1997, an Igbo engineer, Ezekiel Izuogu, produced Nigeria’s first indigenous
prototype car in Imo State. Africa was excited by his ingenuity. However, due
to financial constraints and dirty Nigerian politics, the Izuogu Z-600 model
could not hit the Nigerian market as a mass produced car. His workshop was
later vandalised and his efforts destroyed. The dream died. Few decades later
another Igbo, Innocent Chukwuma, has launched Innoson cars, making him the
first indigenous car producer in and from Nigeria. Anambra and Enugu States
alone have over six indigenous estates. By indigenous I mean industrial estates
built by indigenes, and with little or no government support. Nigeria’s first
indigenous car is made in one of those estates – in Nnewi precisely. The
industrial estates are hosts to several other indigenous manufacturing
companies, including one of the biggest plastic manufacturing plants in Africa.
One would be pleasantly surprised to see what the Igbos are producing in their
industrial estates. It will not be wrong to say that Igbos are driving the
indigenous manufacturing sector of the Nigerian economy with little or no
government support. The first indigenous Nigerian company to produce an
internationally certified brand of computers, Zinox, is Igbo, by the name,
Stanley Nnamdi Ekeh from Imo State. The Igbos dominate the electronics market
and have built a series of ‘computer villages’ across the country. Nigeria’s
leading pharmaceutical companies – Emzor, Juhel, Orange, Rico, etc. – are Igbo
owned. Anabel Mobile, the first indigenous Nigerian phone manufacturer, is also
Igbo owned. There are several industrial breakthroughs the Igbos have made in
Nigeria than I can presently count.
On the level of trade and retail businesses, Igbos are the most
successful traders and retailers in Nigeria, and possibly around the world.
Across every Nigerian city, they do not only control the major retail markets,
but they equally dominate small and medium scale industries, and are synonymous
with the description of being ‘importers’. Their natural inclination towards
economic activities has driven them across the globe in search of
opportunities. There is hardly a country in the world where you don’t find an
Igbo man doing one legitimate or illegitimate form of business. The Igbos have
proven to the rest of Nigeria beyond reasonable doubt that they are not lazy
people.
In Literature, the father
of modern African Literature is an Igbo man by the name Chinua Achebe. His
work, Things Fall Apart has remained one of
Africa’s most read book, which brought international attention to Nigerian
literature. Chinua Achebe remains an inspiration to most African writers.
While the Igbos laid the foundation for political revolutions in
Nigeria, today they are demanding for an independent nation. The Igbos like to
fight for what they believe in and they always do while damning the
consequences of this.
In politics, the Igbo are the only nationality to have successfully executed Nigeria’s first and only political revolution, with the subsequent military coups being merely revenge ploys and schemes for political power. In 1966, a group of senior Igbo officers forcefully took over power and wiped out a set of corrupt politicians in a bloody putsch. Although with the intention of installing the imprisoned opposition leader, Obafemi Awolowo, as president, however the coup was unfortunately altered by another senior Igbo officer, Aguiyi Ironsi, who not only distorted the initial plan but ended up making himself a military ruler and at the same time ended Nigeria’s federalism by decreeing a new form of unitarism. While the Igbos laid the foundation for political revolutions in Nigeria, today they are demanding for an independent nation. The Igbos like to fight for what they believe in and they always do while damning the consequences of this.
The Igbos control a fair share of the oil and gas servicing
industry in Nigeria. The biggest indigenous oil servicing contractor in Nigeria
today is Igbo owned. The first indigenous and independently (without any shred
of government funding) owned gas power plant was built by an Igbo in Aba – the
Geometric Power Limited. From haulage to logistics, procurement to real estate,
finance, sports, entertainment, manufacturing, engineering to medicine,
science, etc., the Igbos have been making Nigeria proud, locally and
internationally. The Igbos might be arrogant and even exploitative in their
quest for profits and expansionism, yet Nigeria can ill afford to lose them
from the union. They technically control the formal and informal sectors of
Nigerian economy and they are everywhere making progress, with or without
political patronage. I was surprised to find out sometime last year that Igbos
still engage in rural-riverine-onshore trading across the remotest villages of
the Niger Delta. In this remote village near the Atlantic ocean in Bayelsa
State that is only accessible through water and the air, these entrepreneurial
Igbos have designed a floating market. They bring in their goods, dock their
big boats once in two weeks, make sales and move to another village along that
dangerous terrain – a business idea the indigenes of that area have never
considered venturing into. The Igbos are definitely risk takers!
In this community where I have stayed for the past few months in
Anambra state, the number of modern houses in this non-industrial,
non-commercial small Igbo village is more than I have seen in all the oil
communities I have visited in the Niger Delta put together. The Igbos are that
successful and they always remember to invest in real estate in their home
states.
he Igbo influence in the
Roman Catholic Church worldwide is amazing. An Igbo, Cardinal Arinze was once
rumoured to become the first black Pope! The Igbos have a strong affinity with
the Roman Catholic Church and they have made a mark on the church globally.
In contemporary fiscal management, the Igbo states have managed to
stay afloat and sustain recurrent and capital expenditures, even when major oil
producing states are already endangered. Anambra, Enugu and other Igbo states
have proven that there is an economy beyond federal allocations and free oil
money.
Anyone who thinks the Igbos cannot survive as an independent nation might need to have a rethink. Just less than four decades after they were defeated in a bloody civil war and denied their property and work spaces across Nigeria, they have risen to produce one of the highest number of billionaires, entreprenuers, and industrialists, etc in Nigeria. They have risen from being a defeated nationality to becoming the dominating factor in the Nigerian economy. They have built indigenous industrial cities, turned out to be the most literate people in Nigeria, dominated several industries and have made Nigeria proud on the world scene. If a people can rise to achieve these with little or no governmental support, one can only imagine what they will become as a republic of Biafra.
Enugu has sufficient coal to power the energy needs of an
industrial economy. Anambra, Abia and Imo states have abundant reserves of
crude oil and natural gas. They also have access to the sea through the Imo and
Niger rivers. Anambra has three commercial and industrial cities concentrating
on manufacturing and trade. Ebonyi is the agriculture base of Igbo land;
producing rice, salt, and other farm produce. Abia has Aba as an international
marketing hub, and over 100 untapped oil wells, with a series of indigenous
manufacturing firms.
In contemporary fiscal management, the Igbo states have managed
to stay afloat and sustain recurrent and capital expenditures, even when major
oil producing states are already endangered. Anambra, Enugu and other Igbo
states have proven that there is an economy beyond federal allocations and free
oil money. They have scored high in security, education, healthcare, job
creation, entrepreneurship, sports, trade, etc.
Many people have argued
that the Igbos would lose their investments across Nigeria if Biafra happens.
This is an archaic and primitive way of thinking. An independent Biafran nation
will not likely alter any Igbo socio-economic relationship with the outside
world, Nigeria inclusive. An independent Biafran nation will not stop Innoson
vehicles from been sold in Nigerian markets, and also Juhel pharmaceutical
products. A new Biafran nation will not stop any Igbo man from being a landlord
in Abuja, Kano or Port Harcourt. It will not stop an Hausa man from still
trading in Onitsha. An independent Biafran will only give the Igbos a political
status in the world order which will in turn further stimulate their
reorientation towards profit repatriation to further the development of their
homeland and eradicate their perception of a federal neocolonialism as
presently engendered by Nigeria’s skewed political system. An independent
Biafran Nation has the potential of becoming the Japan of Africa.
I believe true federalism will fix Nigeria and give the Igbos
their desired autonomy while remaining as Nigerians. I believe we all have a
choice to make true federalism happen as soon as possible before Nigeria
reaches the limits of its elastic point.
The Igbos want autonomy and control of their lives without feeling marginalised and oppressed. Nigeria can give them this sense of autonomy, without necessarily losing them. This is the direction every sensible federal leader should be looking at. How do we satisfy the desire for autonomy by the Igbos and other Nigerian nationalities without necessarily losing them as members of the federation? This is where true federalism comes in.
True federalism will not only give the Igbos a sense of autonomy
but will equally position them to further drive the national economy through
healthy competition and regional integration. True Federalism will enhance the
possibility of Igbo land becoming the Japan of Nigeria. It is possible.
Nigeria has a choice to restructure or let the Igbos go. If the
Federal Government does not make the right choice, the Igbos will make it for
themselves and Nigeria will be the loser. I believe boundaries should be
destroyed and not further created in our time, which is why we ought to support
restructuring, rather than secession. The Igbos have nothing to lose with their
secession agenda, and it is Nigeria that will lose. This is why Nigeria should
now be proffering solutions and not fuelling the agitation.
I believe the Igbos will be better positioned under a
restructured Nigeria.
I do not believe in secession as a solution even though I respect
their right to secession.
I believe true federalism will fix Nigeria and give the Igbos
their desired autonomy while remaining as Nigerians. I believe we all have a
choice to make true federalism happen as soon as possible before Nigeria
reaches the limits of its elastic point.
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