The Igbo people of Nigeria make in majority the population of the 5 Eastern States of Enugu (the Political Central Headquarters), Anambra, Ebonyi, Abia and Owerri. In language and culture, the geographical and population map extends beyond the mentioned 5 States in the South-East geopolitical group. There is what Chinua Achebe called “the Igbo Problem in Nigeria”. In the positive, drawing from Achebe’s discourse, they are industrious, ubiquitous, skillful, intelligent and development-oriented. But in the negative, the average wealthy Igbo person tends to be vulgar through an ostentatious display of wealth, which often makes him boisterous in self-affirmation. However, what Achebe sees as negative is a universal primordial inclination that is inherent in human nature. Through proper personality and psychological maturation, many a man shed off such a negative attribution. That, is not exclusive to the Igbo.
Between 1967 and 1970, the Igbo in league with other people that populated the bight of Biafra fought against the rest of Nigerians for self-determination. The war was lost and won, though the cases of marginalization that caused the groundswell leading to that ill-fated war are still with us. Reflecting on what transpired in the Biafra-Nigeria conflict, Emefiena Ezeani chose the title: “In Biafra Africa Died”. There was a country, where a war was prosecuted almost out from nothing, except for the creativity of the Igbo who deployed skills in manufacturing warplanes, bombs and other war artifacts. Such a common patrimony has been squirreled away in individualistic mode of wealth acquisition among the Igbo. Up to now, we have a Nigeria where the rest of the 36 States are joined in a delicate union of mutual suspicion; where true federalism is choked up by “National Cake Sharing Syndrome” that submerge sub-regional development initiative save for Lagos that had a head start from the spoils of British colonial rule and situational advantage from the blessing of proximity to the Atlantic Ocean; where policy summersault is of natural occurrence; where monetary and fiscal policies are in clear negation of any thought-through sustainable development model; where the politicians are united not for their interest in driving the Nigerian project, but by self-serving interests that stand against the interest of the Nigerian populace whom they are expected to serve but not; where everything almost works in the reverse order: such as the usual insistence in electing leaders that do not have leadership credentials but must be foisted on the country in order to promote sectarian, sectional and tribal interest.
The Nigerian leadership conundrum seems to stifle the initiative capable of promoting the development of Igbo land. As I said earlier, the Igbo are ubiquitous, skillful and development-oriented. The Igbo have been instrumental in the development of Nigeria as their investments are spread across the length and breadth of the country, and in diaspora. But within the Igbo enclave, the investment portfolios of the Igbo are not fully present and represented. This current malaise requires a home-grown investment initiative or what I represent here as “Think-home Philosophy for the Development of Igbo Land”. Philosophy in a general sense involves a rational endeavor in which everything is subjected to critical examination. The outcome of the act of ratiocination yields the recipe for an action plan that would translate to a practical phenomenon. Just to apply the principle of dialectics in Philosophy that is used to question a state of affairs through the feedback loop of thesis, antithesis and synthesis, I may have to enquire thus: “The Igbo have investible wealth (thesis), yet there is no such investment within the Igbo enclave (antithesis), then, the possibility of reconciling the “thesis” and “antithesis” will yield: why can’t the Igbo leaders and Think Tank draw a blueprint for investing the Igbo wealth in Igbo Land (synthesis)?
The above philosophy-based conceptualization will create the scenario of the development of the Igbo Land. We have had successive Governors of Igbo extraction, and other leaders who have not thought it wise to give birth to a home-grown investment and development initiative that will make the Igbo Land the destination capital of all investible wealth. When the whole of European capital was ravaged in the aftermath of the World War II, the Marshall Plan crafted by the then US Secretary of State, George C. Marshall, using the “Investment for a Purpose Initiative” was helpful to prop the European economy. Before China grew to become a global economic power, there was a development model of “Five-Year Development Plan” initiated by Mao Tse Tung (Mao Zedong). Chinese Government has not thrown such development model overboard. Before Singapore became a First World country, it took Lee Kuan Yew many years of sustainable development initiative to set the country on the path of continued economic growth and development. Before the once desert country of Dubai in United Arab Emirates bourgeoned into a Hi-Tech industrialized country, it took the foresight of Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum to first construct the first ever man-made harbor, and still implementing good economic policies made Dubai a free trade zone with great investment in the industrial and tourism sectors, and much more. The current leader of Dubai and the Vice President of UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum made the confession in his “Flashes of Thought”. Many related examples abound.
What has happened beyond our nose (since globalization has shrunk the whole global space into a tiny interactive village) will give us an insight into what the Igbo leaders and Think Tank have so far suffered all of us into. I will relate this situation to an expression used by a Manager of a Company in describing the competence of a staff in relation to job performance: “we enjoy his absence more than his presence”. That surmises what the Igbo leaders have made us undergo. You can imagine what this will lead to if the Igbo leaders of thought fail to make the Igbo economy viable. What I think should be done include: Creating Investment Trust Fund into which the 5 South-Eastern States must contribute part-percentage of its capital budget, which when grown over time would hold sufficient fund to engender “South-East Geo-political Development Master Plan”. Through this for instance, we can commence thorough Dredging of the whole of River Niger to have a deep Seaport in Anambra State. With sub-regional economic initiative, South-East and South-South geo-political zones can collaborate to have another deep Seaport in the coastal area of Calabar. Dry Ports could then be established in the non-costal States with the South-East geo-political zone. To complement the Maritime development would be a Highway road network intersecting all the States in South-East with Mono Rail Line on the median strip of the Highway to address land transportation deficit. In partnership with the Federal Government, the South-East States could frontload investment in Air transportation by having more Cargo Airports for freight handling. The business bubble in this area will burst into Aeropolis with great return in investment (ROI). To solve the power problem within the South-East region, the Thermal Power potential warehoused within Enugu Coal bed could be harnessed.
Up to now, Anambra has remained the economic hub of the region with pocket industrial layouts; Aba is only famous in textile and leather processing and production; Ebonyi State produces rice that is not sufficient enough to feed the intra-state consumption need; Enugu and Imo have remained the hospitality and tourism zones. The fact is that the South-East has not been able to harness its full development potential. To achieve this, a “Think-home Development Philosophy” is inevitable.
The hour has come for us to have “South-East Investment Promotion Council”. The potential development yield that it will occasion would be galvanized for importation through what may be called “South-East Central Marketing Company”. When we start, we will attract more investment capital through Direct Foreign Investment through bilateral trade agreements and MOUs with Trans and Multi-National Corporations (TNCs and MNCs). Let the Igbo leaders wake up to do the needful, since development is not a rocket science; it is planned, executed and monitored using home-grown Key Performance Mechanisms or Indicators. Development does not tolerate stopgap measures. A stitch in time saves nine.