James Eze explores the subject of the economic prowess of the Igbo people of South East Nigeria in this insightful article.
Before the
Biafran War, Eastern Nigeria was one of the few regions of hope in
black Africa. The World Bank made this official in 1964 when it named
Eastern Nigeria the fastest growing regional economy in Sub-Saharan
Africa. Certain indices validated this position.
Nigeria was the world’s largest exporter
of palm oil and palm kernel at the time and almost 90% of that came
from the Eastern Region. Beside palm oil, there were also cassava and
coal which formed some of Nigeria’s major export earners.
At the same time, the Eastern Nigeria
Development Corporation had grown into a behemoth, employing many people
that helped stimulate and sustain consumption. It was a boom period for
the region and when other Nigerians whispered in circles about Igbo
domination at the time, it was mostly in terms of economic power.
Much of that came from the Great Zik and
Mbonu Ojike who did quite an excellent job of crafting the Eastern
Nigerian Economic Reconstruction Plan (1954-1964) which laid the
foundation for the growth of the region. This economic roadmap took a
life of its own in the hands of Dr. M.I Okpara and eventually blossomed
into a buoyant economy that heightened talks of Igbo Domination, which
eventually coalesced into plain fear and resentment from other
ethnicities. Indeed, the economy of the Eastern Region was so strong
that when the first gun shots of the Biafran War sounded in Garkem, the
East was not too bedraggled to muster a response.
But the War ate up everything – people,
infrastructure and of course the economy. The devastation was so
colossal that by the time peace returned in 1970, the once buoyant
economy had become crippled; completely exhausted and lifeless. Those
who survived were clutching at straws, grasping at thin air and ending
up with miserly twenty pound notes. At the time, the only thing that
mattered was survival. With so much energy and dynamism seeking
expression, something was bound to give. And it did in a number of ways.
First, the Igbo elite were utterly
fragmented and driven into individualist survival stratagems. This
marked the foundation of divisiveness and lack of cohesion among our
political elite to date. Sadly, it was to rob us of our brightest chance
at the presidency in 1999 when Jim Nwobodo spoke Hausa in Jos to drive
the final nail into the coffin of Dr. Alex Ekwueme’s presidential bid.
Our political elite could never travel the same road to a meaningful
destination. There were so many other ego wars strewn across the
landscape as the Igbo elite sought to make something of the scraps that
Nigeria had left them. At a point, the divisions and rivalries were so
intense that one wondered if they were the same people who had worked
together, lost family and friends together, fought together and stood up
together to gaze eyeball to eyeball with genocide. One wondered how a
group that long before the war, had pooled funds together in various
Town Unions to send promising boys from different towns on overseas
scholarships could have lost their kindred spirit all of a sudden.
The second post war reaction of the Igbo
was a strong aversion or dislike for home. Perhaps it is only normal
that people should flee the scene of a great loss. Perhaps other people
have handled their own inheritance of loss better than the Igbo.
Whichever was the case, the Igbo abandoned the scene that reminds them
of great personal tragedies and began to sink their investments in any
place else but Igboland. The Igbo homeland therefore became a territory
with no “landmark.”
Ohaneze & Aka Ikenga
One of the most significant responses of
the Igbo to their peculiar leadership challenges as a naturally
acephalous group is the emergence of Ohaneze Ndigbo. This gathering of
wise, old men, scholars, academics, community leaders and successful
businessmen and women has played a critical role in preserving the Igbo
ethnic nation since the association came into existence in 1976. Indeed
Prof Ben Nwabueze may never fully understand what he did when he smartly
assembled what would eventually become Ohaneze with the support of
other cerebral personages like M. I Okpara, K. O Mbadiwe, Pius Okigbo,
Jerome Udorji and many others. At the time, the Igbo were still
shell-shocked from the war; struggling to regain self-belief. Through
the years however, Ohanze has remained the bastion of Igbo pride and
dignity in the gathering of ethnic nationalities in Nigeria. It probably
adds very little to observe that what the Igbo lack in a towering
political leader whose voice is representative of the tribe has been
taken care of by Ohaneze. The success of Ohaneze has spurn the emergence
of Aka Ikenga, the intellectual arm of the umbrella group, Igbo Ezue,
Mkpoko Igbo, World Igbo Congress and several other groups that have
mutated over the years with the ostensible objective of pursuing Igbo
interests. A good many of them have gone extinct though.
All these socio-cultural groups have
sought to bring the Igbo together on the altar of brotherhood and unity.
Through the years too, we have seen the rise of MASSOB with the sole
mission of actualizing the Biafran project through non-violence. At its
very peak, MASSOB held a strong appeal for Igbo youths who felt done in
by the scorched earth policy of the federal government towards the South
East of Nigeria. The group’s posture of non-violence had created a
problem for the federal government that would have wished for a more
obvious justification of a sinister crackdown on members of the group.
In more ways than one, it could be said that MASSOB is the precursor to
the emergence of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), the
self-determination group with a growing global appeal that is agitating
for the realisation of the sovereign state of Biafra. Other groups like
the Biafra Zionist Movement (BZM) and the Lower Niger Congress (LNC)
have also sprung up to intensify the agitation.
It is instructive to note that a major
objective of these groups including the agitators is the re-emergence of
a more prosperous Igboland. Somehow, there is this niggling
feeling that these agitations would have been needless if there were no
sense of alienation or neglect or a common plight in the hands of the
federal government; if most federal roads in Igboland were not in such
absolute disrepair and if there were no undisguised bareknuckle policy
against the Igbo.
A Subtle Response
The Igbo have continued to mount a
subtle response to Nigeria’s sustained indifference. A remarkable
example is the growing spate of purposeful governance in Anambra State
in the past thirteen years and Enugu State in the past nine years.
Starting from Senator Chris Ngige through Sullivan Chime and Peter Obi
to Governor Willie Obiano, the signs indicate that Igbo governors have
finally realised that they have their work neatly cut out for them. They
have discovered that the indifference of the Federal Government is not
an acceptable explanation for Igbo backwardness. But perhaps more
importantly, they have realised that though they may not have enough
resources, the little they control can change the Igbo story in the 21st
Century.
Although many people still point at the
search for legitimacy as Ngige’s actual motive for building a network of
durable roads in some parts of Anambra State in his time, his
three-year regime has gone down in history as the turning point for Igbo
governors to assume full responsibility for their states with the
return to civilian rule. Peter Obi followed in his footsteps and further
interpreted governance in terms of the linking up of towns and
communities in the state with an impressive network of roads, the return
of schools to the missions and a great foundation in primary
healthcare. Sullivan Chime redefined governance in Enugu as a massive
urban renewal initiative that earned the Coal City the enviable rating
as one of the 35 cities across the world to join the Rockefeller
Foundation’s Most Resilient Cities in 2014. Fueled by the desire to
develop a proactive plan to address emerging challenges of urbanization,
the Rockefeller Foundation had come up with the idea of selecting the
second set of cities that would join its 100 Resilient Cities in the
world that had demonstrated a commitment to building their own
capacities to withstand the complexities of the 21st Century. As a
result, 330 applications were received from 94 countries around the
world. Quite interestingly, the chosen cities in Africa were Enugu
(Nigeria), Accra (Ghana), Arusha Tanzania and Kigali (Rwanda) while the
ones selected in Europe were Athens (Greece), Barcelona (Spain),
Belgrade (Serbia), London (Great Britain), Lisbon (Portugal), Milan
(Italy), Paris (France) and Thessaloniki (Greece). It is to former
governor Chime’s credit that in addition to placing Enugu on the world
map, he followed that rare feat up with the provision of security and
the attraction of investments into the state.
Following this trajectory of excellence,
Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State had adopted a strategic
approach to governance that opened the state up and turned it into
Nigeria’s new investment destination. Obiano also clinically drove away
the criminal elements that made the state difficult to inhabit and
shored up the profile of Anambra as Nigeria’s most secured state.
Obiano’s approach to urban development is exemplified in the amazing
transformation of the Awka capital city into an emerging centrepiece for
tourism with the three sparkling bridges and a vibrant social life.
Obiano has also shifted the paradigm by firmly placing Anambra on the
country’s agricultural map while maintaining her enviable position on
the educational map.
The Real Hopes of a Comeback
It is indeed fascinating but not
entirely strange to note that the earliest hints of a possible Igbo
come-back showed up in Anambra State. The surprise really would have
been if it had begun anywhere else earlier. The truth is; Anambra has
always been the epicentre of Igbo ingenuity. Indeed, what has been noted
as the growing new consciousness among Ndigbo to rebuild the homeland
began with the first democratically elected governor of Anambra State,
Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, in the early 90s. It was this Harvard trained
economist who first came up with the “Think Home” ideology. But Ezeife
was probably ahead of his time. The auguries did not favour this
campaign in his brief spell in office. However, he may have succeeded in
planting the idea in the minds of many illustrious indigenes who were
too terrified to invest at home by the scary security situation at the
time.
It is therefore, hardly strange that the
growing nostalgia for Igboland and the quest to rebuild it is one of
the earliest obsessions of Governor Willie Obiano. Any close observer
will recall his call-to-arms to his fellow Igbo in his inaugural
address; his appeal to Ndigbo to repossess the pioneering touch they
seemed to have dropped with the War. The speech was laced with strong
emotional hooks that paraphrased Martin Luther King Jnr’s injunction on
the imperatives of living together as brothers or perishing together as
fools. Obiano’s Inaugural was full of sound bites, including his
assurance that under his charge, Ndi Anambra had “no choice than to
determine whether they were the sons and daughters of their fathers and
true heirs to their pioneering excellence!” Indeed, from Obiano’s grand
opening, we can trace a slow but steady psychological build up. A great
component of this build up is the massively symbolic memorial for Igbo
casualties of the Biafran War. It was the first time a government would
put a garland of dignity on the memory the war heroes. The event was
aptly titled Ozoemezina (Never Again!) In a sense, it was a brilliant
move to appease the restless spirits of our dead brothers and sisters
and summon their support for a grand Igbo renaissance. It turned out a
wise move, because it would seem that Obiano has done nothing wrong ever
since, attracting the listening ears of illustrious Anambra
entrepreneurs who have solidly resolved to make a loud statement in
Nigeria, beginning from their home state.
Obiano has also followed this up with a
well-received address at the World Igbo Congress where he expressed
dissatisfaction with the famed Igbo success story that reminded him of
the paradox of a tree with roots in the sky. He subsequently made a
strong appeal for a joint effort by the governors of the five states of
the South East to build a new economic block.
Yes! The Igbo Can! (Igbo ekwelugo na ana Igbo ga adi mma)
It is indeed interesting to see the
resurging consciousness among Ndigbo across the world that the time to
look back home with fondness has eventually come. From Lagos to New York
and London to South Africa, there is a growing awakening that Igboland
is finally ripe for development. There seems to be a new ring of magic
on this strong new sense of selfhood…something akin to a spiritual
awakening. Whatever it is, this whole new fondness for the homeland is
almost infectious.
Indeed, there is a growing belief that
the Igbo can remake themselves and re-invent their homeland. As one of
Africa’s most remarkable ethnic nations, Ndigbo have repeatedly proven
their capacity to contribute to the global economy and civilization both
as individuals and as a group of people threatened with extinction. As
individuals, the Igbo seem to have fared better; dazzling their peers in
commerce, the arts and sciences, the academia and in the professions.
The landscape is strewn with pockets of Igbo ingenuity at home and in
the Diaspora. And in spite of the setback from the war, Igboland has
since shrugged off the image of smouldering rubble melting under the
scorching sun of neglect from the government at the centre. Most Igbo
towns no longer look like pictures out of National Geographic. In fact,
in some places, one is pleasantly stunned by the level of development.
During his recent visit to Anambra
State, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo couldn’t believe what he saw in
Onitsha and Nnewi. Yet his visit was restricted to Krioral Limited, the
Pokobros Group, Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Limited, the Chicason
Group and Tummy Tummy.
Vice President Osinbajo saw enough to
elicit a gushy adulation for Igbo entrepreneurship. Yet, Igbo
entrepreneurship is still on exile and has now real roots in Igboland.
The only eyesore in the South East remains the federal roads linking the
major cities. These apart, Igboland is not left behind in the quest for
modernity and progress.
As a group, there is still a huge
residue of pride in the breath-taking scientific achievements during the
war and a deep belief that those records could be bettered, given the
right conditions. Innocent Chukwuma is already blazing an excellent
trail with his automobile manufacturing company in Nnewi, the first in
West Africa. Indeed, the Igbo have never doubted his capacity to re-make
his world. What may still be in doubt is the readiness of his
neighbours to accept that fact!
James Eze is a writer and senior special advisor to the governor of Anambra State on media. He can be reached by email HERE.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author
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