One thing Eziachi conveniently overlooked is that Awolowo resigned as Finance Minister in 1971 while the Indigenisation decree was promulgated in 1972.

No one has shown the decree or law that enabled the confiscation of money left in banks and how the banks identified those accounts that were Ibo. Ibos by the way were not the only ethnic group in Eastern Nigeria but you hear these lies only from Eboes

The allocation for East Central state was £990 000 pounds a month about £12 million a year.Awo kept all this money and it was reimbursed after the war.He did not have to.

The Federal budget was about £50 million Naira and the current value of £20 (1 Nigerian pound =2 pounds sterling) is £488. i.e about 200000 Naira.
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-1633409/Historic-inflation-calculator-value-money-changed-1900.html
The truth is when Ibos fled they were never coming back so why would they leave money in Nigerian banks. Some claim to have lost documents but hey that is war .A large number withdrew whatever savings they had(how many had Bank accounts in those days,how many Banks were there?) and converted these to the Biafran pound. The Biafran pound was not convertible internationally and so Ojukwu took their Nigerian currency to fund his insurgency, that is where their money went. In doing so they were funding and investing in the war effort. The investment turned out to be "Bad Market" so do not blame others.

Once people crossed into Biafra was the Biafran pound distributed to people free? No it was not people exchanged Nigerian pounds and Ojukwu also stole money from the CBN
Those people who could prove they had money kept ALL their money. We must not forget that many Ibos stayed on the Nigerian side like Asika and Ike Nwachukwu and Zik and so on

aribisala0:
One thing Eziachi conveniently overlooked is that Awolowo resigned as Finance Minister in 1971 while the Indigenisation decree was promulgated in 1972.

No one has shown the decree or law that enabled the confiscation of money left in banks and how the banks identified those accounts that were Ibo. Ibos by the way were not the only ethnic group in Eastern Nigeria but you hear these lies only from Eboes

The allocation for East Central state was £990 000 pounds a month about £12 million a year.Awo kept all this money and it was reimbursed after the war.He did not have to.

The Federal budget was about £50 million Naira and the current value of £20 (1 Nigerian pound =2 pounds sterling) is £488. i.e about 200000 Naira.
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-1633409/Historic-inflation-calculator-value-money-changed-1900.html
The truth is when Ibos fled they were never coming back so why would they leave money in Nigerian banks. Some claim to have lost documents but hey that is war .A large number withdrew whatever savings they had(how many had Bank accounts in those days,how many Banks were there?) and converted these to the Biafran pound. The Biafran pound was not convertible internationally and so Ojukwu took their Nigerian currency to fund his insurgency, that is where their money went. In doing so they were funding and investing in the war effort. The investment turned out to be "Bad Market" so do not blame others.

Once people crossed into Biafra was the Biafran pound distributed to people free? No it was not people exchanged Nigerian pounds and Ojukwu also stole money from the CBN
Those people who could prove they had money kept ALL their money. We must not forget that many Ibos stayed on the Nigerian side like Asika and Ike Nwachukwu and Zik and so on

Medicine after death

Everyone knows it is Awo's handwork

WICKED LIARS like you peddle falsehood to create unnecessary ethnic tension.
1) Awolowo was Minister of Finance(not chairman of MILITARY ruling council or whatever)
in Gowon's military regime between 1967-1971.

2)The indigenization policy have been topics of debate among Nigerian political class since the 1950s and the Action group party introduced it into parliamentary debates in 1961 but the law to back it up started with the indigenization decree of 1972 (after your supposed oppressor, Awolowo left Government) with Alh Sheu Shagari as Federal Commissioner (as ministers were called then).
Major companies were eventually listed on the stock exchange in 1975-1978.
3) Tribal bigots like you tried to paint a picture of Nigeria between 1967-1972 as a medieval absolute monarchy with Awolowo as the King wielding unlimited power to decree anything that catches his fancy.

ACM10:
Just like I remarked in my previous post, I'm unsure if Awolowo had indigenization policy in mind when £20 policy was enforced. Awo woke up after £20 policy to discover that the economic backbone of his rival tribe has been broken. He decided to make a kill by promulgating indigenization policy knowing fully well that it will mostly benefit his kinsmen cos he's well aware that his kinsmen has displaced their rival tribe from the apex of the economic pyramid in the country. He made the time so short so that the easterners will not recover to fully participate in the indigenisation policy. Remember that it's been 12yrs since independence, so why the mad rush to nationalize foreign companies? Why wont a provision be made for the people who are still recovering from the war to participate in the process? Can you see that the policy was "opportunistic"? Though Awolowo may/may not have the policy in mind when he set out to reduce Igbo millionaires to £20 owners, but at the end of the day, he achieved his aim of fatally weakening his rival tribe, then displacing them for good from the upper echelon of the economic pyramid. So he killed two birds with one stone. So his policy can be labelled "subtle opportunistic conspiracy".

ACM10:


The companies were British-owned companies which were nationalized during the indigenization policy. Yorubas acquired those companies when the indigenization policy took effect. I doubt if you read the post thoroughly because your doubts were well attended to. You can drive home your point by telling us the founders of those companies you listed.
Ofcourse the companies were located in western region which is closest to the seat of British power in the country.

The events that took place during the indigenization policy can be compared to what happened during the fall of Soviet Union. Overnight, taxi drivers became instant millionaires by acquiring state-owned companies with little or nothing. They later became known as the Russian oligarchs.

Igbos are not trying to jealous Yorubas. Besides, this is purely my personal opinion and may/may not reflect that of average Igboman. I intends to set the records straight. It will be nice if Nigerian youths learns from this event in our history.

This would have been an amazing piece if you had not tainted it with your prejudice and hatred. What a pity!

Summary: Indigeniztion just like nationalization was an abject failure in Nigeria and throughout most other countries where it was introduced.
Morale of the story is that g ovts that don't respect property rights end up being economic basket cases.

Afam4eva:
You don't expect Igbos to some out of the war and still dominate the economy and the civil service. They forfeited it the moment they went to war considering the fact that most of these companies were located in Lagos and would ordinarily be taken over by Yorubas. Had they been located in the east, it would have been a diferent case.

I think the Igbo have to leave all this and move forward as a nation. We have what it takes to take our place like it was pre civil war.

Gbam

1)Awolowo was Federal Commissioner for Finance between 1967-1971 and he wasn't in Gowon's Regime during when the indigenization was promulgated in 1972.

2) The decree only tried to reserve certain areas of the economy like trading or retail commercial marketing for Nigerians.
3) The Companies were directed to open up their ownership structure to Nigerians and they were listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange between 1975-1979. Awolowo wasn't in Government then.
4) This opportunity was for ALL Nigerians.
Those who couldn't buy shares in Mobil,Leventis or First Bank in 1975 were able to do so in 1990 or 2005.




The victim mentality of some people from a region of Nigeria is embarrassing.
In their attempts to portray themselves as victims of the Yoruba people, they arrogate so much power to Awolowo than he could possibly wielded.

oduasolja:
From the beginning, it was clear to the British government that the entire indigenisation
scheme was being championed by the group of three economic permanent secretaries –
Allison Ayida (Finance), Phillip Asiodu (Mines and Power) and Ime Ebong (Economic
Development). These “cautious and brilliant administrators” who also authored the Second
National Development Plan, held “strong doctrinaire views” and were “able to force their
policies through the Supreme Military Council whose members are neither brilliant nor able
to assess the practical effects of what is proposed.”
19


this is culled from page 6 of this indigenization report.

http://www.nai.uu.se/ecas-4/panels/61-80/panel-68/Chibuike-U-Uche-Full-paper.pdf

awolowo was not the architecht of the indigenization decree.