Guys,I thought you'd like to read this. Please close your eyes when you get to food he ate at home. Our brother knows how to oppress!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have just returned from Nigeria where I spent a very busy time addressing the various problems facing the Igbo nation. The journey was nearly cancelled at the last minute when word came that Chief Ralph Uwazurike the MASSOB leader was visiting the United States. It was a visit I had waited for a long time, but it came in my absence. I had to go on with my trip believing that he would receive an enthusistic reception with or without my presence. I am glad to hear from my associates that he made a great impression, and justified the hope we all repose in him by articulating his mission and the fact that he was charting a steady course toward the objective to extricate the Igbo from their perennial underdog status in Nigeria.
However, my journey to Nigeria became a major media event, and I saw first hand what the problems that face the Igbo are. I was able to visit with several commissioner in Imo State, local government chairmen, members of the Imo House of Assembly, as well as local leaders both in my town and the neighboring towns. Fortunately, I was invited to a television interview by the Imo Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) in their program Encounter. This was a one-hour question and answer, no-holds barred, straight from the heart session. I used to be the chairman of that organization during the Mbakwe regime. And, it seems that I left a deep well of goodwill with them. I was surrounded quickly by my former colleagues and staff who expressed pleasantries and nostalgia. It really touched my heart.
I seized the opportunity of the television interview to deliver a message to all appointed and elected Igbo leaders, including governors, local government chairmen, senators, members of the House of Representatives, local government councillors and commissioners. The message was two pronged, namely: For all Igbo public office holders to regard themselves as on a task force assignment to develop the whole of Igbolandand and; for the preservation of Igbo identity to inculcated in everyday Igbo life.
I took the liberty to set performance goals for every Igbo governor and every Igbo local government chairman. For governors, I prescribed that each one of them should aim at generating at least fifty (50) industries within the four years they will serve in office, and creating at least one hundred and fifty jobs every year, for a total of six hundred thousand jobs for the four years of their first tenure. For local government chairmen, I suggested that each L. G. chairman aim at establishing and operating at least twenty major industries for the four years they would be in office, and generating at least twenty thousand jobs a year for a total of eighty thousand jobs within the four years they would be in office.
I informed my audience that I had recently conducted a random survey of one hundred (100) people. The question I posed to them was: If the government came to you saying that they have four things they propose to give out and you can only take one of them for now, and they are (1) good roads (2) electric power (3) water and lastly (4) job; which one would you rather take as a matter of priority? The result was as sobering as it was sad. Sobering because 99 of the respondents chose jobs, while one person chose roads.And, sad because, jobs turn out to be the most neglected of the people's needs. No government in Nigeria today, be it federal ,state or local is addressing job creation or industrialization.
Unemployment rate in Nigeria today is between 70-80%. It is worse in Igboland because there are no industries that could absorb job seekers. Consequently, most Igbo youth are elsewhere either in other parts of Nigeria seeking employment, which more often than not does not exist or in a foreign country facing all kinds of odds.The Igbo have been moving out of Igboland ever since the colonial days when jobs were concentrated in Lagos, Kaduna, Kano, and anywhere else other than Igboland. Former premier of old Eastern Nigeria Dr. Michael Okpara had started to redress the situation when he created the Trans-Amadi Industrial Layout in Port Harcourt, and other industrial layouts throughout Eastern Nigeria. He was rapidly industrializing Eastern Nigeria before it was terminated when the military intervened. This effort was taken up again by Chief Samuel Mbakwe during the Second Republic, again it was snuffed out when the Buhari junta overthrew the governments. The military continued to ravage Igboland land in a fashion Archbishop Anthony Obinna of Owerri Archdioces described as the "season of locusts."
There is this cancer eating away Igbo economic survival called the "Ugba Syndrome.": Ugba Syndrome is the phenomenon of a tree called Ugba bearing fruit and when the fruits mature, the seeds scater, away from the base of the Ugba tree. The Igbo have been playing the revisionist role of producing highly trained manpower, only for them to abandon Igboland to go elsewhere to seek employment and service their local economies while Igbo economy suffers and gradually dies off. Any Igbo who reflects on the whereabouts of his classmates will be shocked to find that over 90% of his or her classmates are away from from Igboland. Unless this trend is reversed, Igboland will continue to be exporters of skilled human resources while suffering a redundant economic and social situation.
I suggested to all Igbo states and local governments for each to come up with a well articulated industrialization policy. This policy should take into consideration the role of the public and private sectors in the generation of industries and the attendant job creation. The policy would need to be presented to the state assembly to be debated and passed into law. It is at this point that elected officials should hustle to include in the policy, amenities and perks for their constituencies. Once it becomes law, it becomes an on-going program which would stay on course while governments come and governments go. Any committment made will be inherited by subsequent governments. It is this Industrialization Policy that will give foreign investors the confidence to participate in the program. I told them that it should be clear to every one of us that nobody from elsewhere will come to Igboland to indusrialize it, be they Europeans, Americans, Japanese, the Federal government of Nigeria, the Yorube or the Hausa. The task is squarely on our shoulders.
Later, the Commissioner for Commerce Hon. Uche and Industries and his Permanent Secretary, Ms Laety Okere invited me to address the Ministry and the members of the Organized Private Sector - The Chambers of Commerce, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, and the Association of Small Scale Industrialists. It was an auspicious meeting and well attended. I let them know that the Ministry of Commerce and Industry was the most powerful ministry in any developing country. It is the ministry that sees to it that the country is tranformed from a developing economy to a developed economy. I let them know that the main difference between one country and the other is the level at which each one is developed. Hence, the world is divided into Industrialized and Non-industrialized nations.
On the preservation of Igbo identity, I stressed the need for the Igbo to preserve our identity. This should be done by what we wear, how we talk to each other in Igbo instead of in English. I told them that the Igbo have a very comprehensive culture and the a very rich language. I told tham that the we make a mistake thinking that English was the language of the white man, while as the truth is that English is only spoken in very few European countries. Other Europeans did not abandon their language to speak English. The French speak their language, the Spanish speak theirs, the Germans, the Swede, the Portuguese, etc. There is no reason why we should not be proud to speak our language with confidence. Unfortunately, everywhere one goes in Igboland, what one sees are Igbos talking to each other in English, Igbos in Hausa robes, Yoruba agbadas, and anything else other than Igbo national dresses. Yet, the Igbo have a repertiore of very dignified assortment of native attires. To those who say the Igbo language was not complete, they ought to know that no language is in of itself complete. English language which they pretend to speak though awkwardly is not complete either. I gave them examples of English borrowed words such as: quid pro quo, quorum, mano a mano, simpatico, wanderlust,gauche, maelstrom,ensemble, vis-A-vis, metier, ergo, double entedre, capo, loco, shtick, sotto, voco, elan, etc.
Three reporters asked very intelligent and probing questions. They wanted to know what the Igbo in the Diaspora were planning in the area of industrializing Igboland. I told them that there is no doubt that part of the gains for living in developed countiries would include attracting industries home, but this should not be planned on because there were only a handful of Igbos abroad who can attract industries, and that they must recognize that many Igbo people who live in the Diaspora were simply strugling. I told them that we can only plan with the known, namely monies coming into Igboland from the federal governement through the states and local government. This is public money which must form the bedrock of the people's economic development hopes. The last question was whether I was nursing the ambition of running for governor of Imo State. To that I replied that if the present governor could accomplish what I suggested in the area of industrialization and job creation, he needed not campaign for re-election because he would be running unopposed. On the other hand, if at the end of three years unemployment was still very high, and the people's business including youths employment, were still not addressed, then the office was open for contest, and there were many of us who believe that we can do better.
It is necessary, I told them, that industrialization must be pursued with the greatest vigor, because upon it shall there dawn the era of producer economy instead of consumer economy, exporting economy instead of importing economy, jobs for all, instead of armed robber youths, and manpower utilization instead of perennial and proverbial bottomless pit of educational investments on our youth. I told them that we have lied to our children when we told them to go to school to learn skills for jobs that would offer them decent income to take care of their future welfare. Our children listened to us and went to school, burned the midnight oil, strugled through thick and thin to obtain good qualifications, only to find that we had no jobs for them.
What, however, nearly got me to loose my patience was that each time I was in an office of any official - commissioner, permanent secretary or a lowly a clerk in the office, while I spoke to them in Igbo, they replied me in English. I continued to give them subtle cues that I expected them to speak to me in Igbo, they seemed oblivious of my cues and continued to irritate me, I took the liberty of telling them I did not enjoy their speaking to me in English since I know that they were Igbo. I told them that if they could not speak to me in Igbo, the conversation was should end. One of them provoked me into telling him that if he insisted on speaking English, and if I decided to speak to him in the his white man's language, he would not understand me as I would mix English, French, Spanish and German. I said, in a moment of real anger that he should recognize that I have two Masters degrees and a Ph.D. and a college professor, and that he could hardly impress me with his Engligbo. What disarms one is their ability to laugh serious situations away. But, still everyone of the agrees that it is a bad habit which must be broken.
I thoroughly enjoyed my visit home. It was a visit that lifted my spirit and resurrected my social status among my people, something that I have not enjoyed for a long time living abroad. To live among one's own people. those who own you and those you own, and every where one looks, it is either a friend, a relative, or a colleague, really expressing genuine joy at seeing one, and expressing deep-rooted love, makes one to hasten one's eventual homecoming. Perhaps what made it special is that I spent all my time in my town Umuohiagu among my people, age mates, sisters, brothers, cousins, uncles, the whole dear hearts and gentle people who live in the countryside. Not to mention eating fresh oha, ugu and okazi, vegetables ero (mushrooms), and the whole bit of organic food, and being awaken each morning by the crow of the cock and the laughcry of bush fowls. At night, the crickets creek and the beetles hiss while the stars in their countless number adorn the peaceful dark nights, only for days later the moon to lit the whole countryside provoking children to frolick under the trees practising their games of uga, bo-peep, and all. It was indeed, home, sweet home. You ought to visit too.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dead right!
OU
___________________
Awo's political idea was based on the assumption that any town beyond Owo was Igbo or Hausa. Awo was not socialised; he was not a good mixer because he did not have the opportunity, which the secondary school offered. ~TOS Benson, Baba Oba of Lagos
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic
