By Ori Martins (Owerri), Nonye Udumiri (Aba)
The call to invest at home has been the sermon for many years. Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu made it a clarion call. Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife rings it like a bell. Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe and Chief Nnia Nwodo are always calling on Ndigbo to bring their investments home. The Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF) made it its anthem and currently, the Association of South-East Town Unions (ASETU) has turned it into their motor.
However, the response is low, clumsy and scaled-down. Meanwhile, investors like Prof Gregory Ibeh, the founder and chancellor of Gregory University Uturu, Abia State, Chief (Dr.) Alexander Chika Okafor, the executive chairman and founder of Chicason Group of companies, Chief Cosmas Maduka of Coscharis fame, Innocent Chukwuma of Innosson Motors and indeed most Nnewi industrialists are among the few Igbo businessmen who are already investing home. As a matter of fact, Nnewi investors deserve applause for their courage in investing in their abode. In this report, News Echo documents the possible causes of low response to the Igbo Akuruo Ulo (Think Home) investment initiative.
The Igbo are well known all over the world as people who attract development wherever they are found. They are allergic to conservatism. They like to change things positively and move with the trend of time in terms of growth and development.
However, it is shocking that a race which is arguably Africa’s most progressive race finds it extremely difficult to develop her own territories.
With small a landmass, close neighborhoods and states adjoining each other like parts of the human body, Ndigbo ironically still find it difficult to upgrade their land to the standard everyone expected.
People who are aware of Igbo history, people who know the caliber of men and women the Igbo nation have with acclaimed ingenuity, expect that South-East could have been turned into Dubai or California of Africa.
What is Aku ruo olu Investment Initiative?
Aku ruo ulo Investment Initiative, (Think Home), is a developmental programme that is aimed at persuading wealthy Igbo across the globe to bring a substantial percent of their investments to Igbo-land. On several occasions, the president-general of ASETU, Chief Emeka Diwe, has always talked about this programme. The Ideato born business magnate had always insisted that the main reason was to develop Igbo land. He had always called on Ndigbo in Nigeria and in Diaspora to start investing part of their wealth in Igbo-land to stimulate industrial and economic development of the South-East and provide jobs for the youths of the zone.
ASETU in its own plan believes that Aku ruo ulo is centered on making Ndigbo who reside outside Igbo-land to begin to consciously, gradually and seamlessly repatriate their wealth back home. To ASETU, Aku ruo ulo is the development of the Igboman in Igbo-land, stressing that it is painful to note that the greatest number of wealthy Nigerian individuals is the Igbo, yet, this reality has not reflected in the existential conditions of the Igboman in Igbo-land.
The union believes that with Aku ruo ulo, more jobs will spring up and social vices take a nosedive and Igbo-land will become the attraction of Nigeria and Africa. ASETU is not alone in this move, in December 2020, Prof. Uzodinma Nwala, President General of Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF) explained his own view on the Aku ruo ulo Investment Initiative.
Nwala said that ADF decided to move away from the social media mentality and show in everything it is and does that it is a movement for a revolutionary change in the struggle to reposition the place of the Igbo man within the global community. He said that ADF had embarked on the process of practically addressing its urgent tasks – namely Food and physical security of Ndigbo and their ancestral home.
According to him, the move is to be anchored on the Agenda of effective Youth Empowerment & Re-orientation which they have set up a Pilot scheme – secured land, dug a borehole, and set the pioneer youth in the designated area of the pilot scheme to immediately start planting crops as a take-off and practical launch pad of their own Aku ruo ulo Cooperative Movement (ACM).
Igbo nation, landmass, government
Let us take a little analysis of the geography of Igbo-land. Yes, whenever Igbo-land is mentioned nowadays, all fingers point towards the South East. That is what politics has done to Ndigbo. The obvious gerrymandering of Igbo-land into Benue, Rivers, Edo, Delta has made the South East geopolitical zone with five states appear like the only home of Igbo in Nigeria.
News Echo while concentrating permanently South East Nigeria as Igbo-land with five states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo analyzed the developmental evidences within the five states since their creation and discovered that failure should be the remarks on their report cards. The South East is the smallest geopolitical zone in Nigeria in terms of landmass. It has a total landmass of 29,362 Square Kilometers (29,362 km2) shared by its five states. Enugu State has 7,161 Square Kilometers (7,161 km2), Abia State: 6,320 Square Kilometers (6,320 km2), Ebonyi State 5,935 Square Kilometers (5,935 km2), Imo State, 5,530 Square Kilometers (5,530 km2) and Anambra State: 4,416 Square Kilometers(4,416km2).
Why should one of Africa’s most progressive and developmental driven race find it hard to develop a total area of 29,362 Square Kilometers, 15 Senatorial Zones, 43 Federal Constituencies and 95 Local Government Areas?
As a commentator put it recently, ”Take it or you leave it, individuals in Igbo-land are trying to develop their towns and cities all over Igbo-land. However, the five men in the five government houses, the 15 senators in the 15 senatorial zones, the 43 members of the House of Representatives, the state assembly members and of course the rubber stamped 95 local government chairmen are not helping matters.
It is embarrassing; it is insulting, it is degrading that Abakiliki, Awka, Enugu, Owerri and Umuahia as capital cities cannot boast of ordinary portable water for residents. It is also disheartening that Aba, Afikpo, Nnewi, Nsukka, Okigwe, Onitsha and Orlu cannot boast of a reliable environmental sanitation scheme or programme.
He added; ”For those rejoicing about development in Igbo-land, it is unfortunate that you do not know that out of the 95 LGAs in Igbo-land, only 19 can be said to have seen what development ought to be like not that they are actually developed. South East political leaders have not been able extend development beyond the five capital territories and pre-colonial commercial towns”.
According to Barrister Eze Chibuike, ”What people refer to as rural areas in South East are simply abandoned areas. There must be rural areas, but there is a big difference between a rural area and an abandoned area. Most of the communities and towns described as rural are actually abandoned places with nothing that makes life worth living.
It is good to know that Ebonyi and Anambra State governments are building Airports. Nothing is wrong with such projects as it will help to improve their economies, but what happens to basic projects like good road infrastructure, portable water and other simple things that should be found where humans exist”?
Commenting, an engineer, Ginika Nkemakolam noted that ”It will shock someone to realize that a certain community in Anambra State (Ogwuikpele) in Ogbaru LGA have never seen electricity. It does not even have motor- able roads. What do they want, just an ordinary bridge across its river to enable the people move farm produce easily to Azia in Ihiala LGA and most times, Egbuoma in Oguta LGA of Imo State. In fact, emerging towns that recovered fully from the destructions of the 1967-1970 Civil War have remained stagnant in development, as most communities are even getting deserted as a result of rural urban migration”.
Most Igbo blame the nasty postwar conditions made possible by successive federal governments at the centre as the reason behind the massive rural urban migration going on in the South East, but nobody cares to look at the administrative recklessness by some South East governors and National Assembly Members who have contributed nothing to development.
An activist, Uche Emeku from Item, Bende LGA of Abia State said he has been wondering if Abia State is being governed by none-Igbo to warrant the level of underdevelopment seen all over the state. “There is one question I normally ask people when we are interacting and the issue of development of the Abia comes up. The question is, “since 1999 aren’t the state indigenes the ones piloting the affairs of the state?
“You see there is no need pretending that all is well with Abia State. It’s either we elected the wrong persons driven by our ethnic sentiment without taking a critical look at such person’s antecedents, background, experience in community work, empathy with the less privileged, general social orientation or that such a fellow rigged his way to power using thugs or street urchins or outright criminal elements in the society,” he said.
He said that whenever one reflects on the achievements of Chief Sam Mbakwe as governor of Old Imo State between 1979 and 1983 which is a period of only four years and three months, one may begin to see how unfortunate Abia is.
Emeku said that during the Mbakwe administration, he tried very hard to curtail rural- urban migration by creating massive jobs in the rural-areas. “He first took agriculture to a new high by emulating Chief Michael Okpara who was the premier of old Eastern Nigeria before the Nigerian Biafran civil war.
Mbakwe created the now moribund Imo Golden Chicken Poultry Farm at Avutu in Obowo LGA of Imo State and Ogwe-Asa, Ukwa West LGA now in Abia State. With the establishment of these flourishing Poultry Farms/Agricultural industries, the old Imo State not only produced enough chicken and eggs for its teeming population, but a lot of jobs were created indirectly and directly as shops sprang up across the length and breadth of the state.
Foreign exchange was saved as the state stopped importing chicken. Mbakwe encouraged all the communities in the state to build at least one secondary school and send their children to study their thereby stemming migration from rural areas.”
Emeku said it is laughable to hear the present day governors in South East Nigeria talk about the paucity of funds for developmental purposes.
He asked them to consider how small Mbakwe received to have embarked upon massive road construction from Aba, Umuahia to Okigwe, Owerri and part of present day Ebonyi State. He added that Orlu, Oguta and Ohafia was not left out of Mbakwe’s massive developmental projects within barely fours years, stressing that industrial development like the total transformation of Osisioma Industrial Area were all Mbakwe’s effort in suburbs and rural areas
Emeku lamented that the present crop of leaders are just there to continue plunder and rape the state to stupor.
He said; “it seems that the devil has seized their thinking faculty. If our so-called leaders can only realize that they are walking under the heavens and that sooner than later it will be all over they will do the needful because is a harsh judge. It’s quite pitable that our young men and women are leaving in droves to the cities because there appears to be nothing in the village for them. The ugly fallout to this is that old men and women who have all spent their youthful energy and cannot defend the villages in times of emergency. Do you know that our villages are used for burials only? We neglect our forest and Foreigner populates them. This makes all of vulnerable. The Governors of the five Eastern states can collaborate and do something if they are sincere in good governance.”
Emeka Okeke, a business man in Aba said, “Igbo in Diaspora are not blind. They are seeing what is happening on ground. They have the money; they want to see a serious governor who will assure them of a safe environment. Look at how the governors abandon service to the people and keep fighting for wealth without conscience. If a government finds it difficult to construct an ordinary life threatening bridge joining Ngwa road and Ogbor-Hill, what do you expect an investor to do? If a government is busy sending touts and thugs to harass investors in the name of revenue collection, who will see that kind of rubbish and come back home? I know Igbos that have money and are looking for what to do with their money, but the state government aren’t helping matters”.
He added, “Everyone wants to live in a good environment, but take a good look at Town Planning in Abia State. Is that how cities should look like? Why are we creating things we’ll destroy tomorrow when we finally regain our senses? How many senators and House of Representative members go to their people to verify what they really want and push for such in the name of a constituency project? What you have here are people who come home during election, but remain in Abuja immediately they win.
Aku ruo ulo Investment Initiative cannot work properly when we have greedy and inconsiderate men as political leaders. These men cannot even come out with one voice, move to Abuja and ask them why we cannot have a Seaport at Obeaku?
“They cannot ask the Federal Government why we cannot have the modern railway other regions are having. You may not like my view, but your governors and all your political leaders are the real enemies of progress in Igbo-land. From 1999 till today, all the governors that ruled in South East are still alive. Can you call all of them to tell us just one significant thing each of them did? I bet you that only Peter Obi may have something serious to say.”
One truth about the ordinary Igbo man and woman is that they love their home. They wish to be around. They want to do business at home. Yes, the Federal Government controls a lot, but the political leadership in Igbo-land can still make the right move to make Obeaku Seaport a reality. They know that such infrastructure will surely change the business landscape of Igbo-land.
There may be five states in the South East, but Igbo do also know themselves by their clans. Every clan in the central Igbo-land has its own beautiful gifts God has given to it.
Insecurity
Although there are insecurity concern all around Nigeria, the presence of vigilante and other private security outfits elsewhere have drastically reduced criminal activities in those places, not so in the South East. Kidnapping and armed robbery are worse. Unlike in the north where kidnappers target students and armed robbers go for anybody they see on the road, in the South East, these gunmen target established businessmen and their businesses. This makes most Igbo investors not to honour the clarion call of Think Home Philosophy. Just not long ago, an Owerri based industrialist, Chief Okey Ikoro lamented on the high level of insecurity in Imo State, particularly at the Onitsha Road Industrial Layout. He called on the state government to take measures to checkmate the alarming level of criminal activities going on in the state if investors must be attracted to the area.
Lack of power
It has been established that the South East pays the highest amount of money in terms of power consumed monthly. This is in spite of the fact there is terrible generation of power from the national and regional power stations. A situation where a vegetable oil manufacturer in Owerri, Onitsha or Aba uses generator all day and night to produce, while his counterpart in Lagos, Abuja or Port Harcourt only uses his gen sets to subsidize his power means that the Owerri, Onitsha or Aba investor will sooner than later run out of business. ”My brother, things are horrible here in terms of running businesses. The incessant failure of power here is outrageous. I mean, it is killing. How can I run on almost 24 hour on generator? It mad but that is what we do in the entire South East”, Sam Chima Njoku, a shoe producer in Aba lamented.
Bad roads
Almost all the bad roads in the South East – federal and state – are in horrible conditions. This makes it very difficult for the would- be investors in the South East to really give serious considerations on doing any business in the region. For instance, the Onitsha – Enugu Road is in a bad condition; same for the Enugu, Umuahia, Aba, Port Harcourt Expressway and indeed all the federal roads in Igbo nation. Again, the Lagos – Benin – Onitsha Road is in bad shape. It goes to mean that Igbo businesses will find it difficult in bringing their goods from Lagos with both international airport and seaport to the South East.
N45 trillion Igbo investment at risk
During the quit home order given to Ndigbo in the north by the youth wing of the Arewa Consultative Forum and its counter order given to northerners by Ohaneze Ndigbo Youths, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) cautioned the Igbo against maltreating northerners, warning that such could endanger the multi-billion naira investment of the Igbo in the north. ACF said the Igbo investments in Kaduna, Kano, and Jos alone amounted to about N45 trillion. The deputy secretary-General of ACF, Abubakar Umar said this while addressing members of the South-South/South-East Arewa Coalition, who paid a courtesy call on ACF.
“Yoruba and Igbo people in Jos, capital of Plateau State lost N480 billion and N410 billion investments respectively to the 2011 post election violence. The South-South also lost N970 billion in the same crisis.
We have these statistics, so we expect the Igbo to treat our kinsmen, our brothers and sisters in the East as kings and Queens in view of the fact that they (Igbo) have more investments in the north than in the East. Take Abuja, the Federal capital territory, for example, the Igbo occupy over 73 percent of the land, so these are some of the reasons why they should be everybody’s keepers in their place,” Umar said.
If Ndigbo can take home just half of the above figure to South East, the region will be the envy of all.
