The Igbos have more at stake
in Nigeria on July 26, 2013 at 11:38 am in Viewpoint THE recent twist in Nigerian
politics leading to agitations
for presidency based on ethnic
and zonal cleavages, has led
some to the conclusion that no
leader can emerge that will unite Nigeria. Their reasons include that a
Northern leader will attract
resistance from other zones,
because the North led this
nation for 35 out of 50 years
and basically brought us to this stage of despair. The South West got power
from the military in 1999; their
leadership brought in GEJ,
under whom we are still
groping, with insecurity and
bad politicking threatening the very existence of the country,
while the North has vowed to
remove him from Aso Rock. Many, therefore, reason that
Nigeria has reached a stage
where no leader will be able to
unite the country. I do not
agree with this position, and I
am not alone. There is yet a zone that has
shown complete and unalloyed
loyalty to the nation of Nigeria,
and within that zone lies the
leadership that will take
Nigeria out of the doldrums. An honest check of the
investments by ethnic
personalities and individuals
across the country, take us to
one ethnic group that qualifies
by reason of their investments in each state of Nigeria to
produce a leader that will bring
unity. My unaided estimates, for want
of verifiable statistics, show
that in Lagos, Igbo investment
is not less than N300 trillion; it
is double of that in Abuja at
about N600 trillion. In Kano and Kaduna, Igbo
investments run up to N10
trillion respectively; while in
Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa
states, Igbo investment run
into N5 trilion respectively. In Plateau State Igbo investment
is hovering over N15 trillion! I
can confidently add that there
is no state in Nigerian where
Igbo investments in business
do not exceed N5 billion. Capitalism is about
investments, profits and
financial power. The Holy
Scripture tells us a man’s heart
is always where his treasures
are kept. Igbo treasures and investments are spread across
every nook and corner of
Nigeria. It makes sense to me to posit
that only an Igbo man can
bring unity to Nigeria. The
problem is that those Igbo
haters do not want to face this
fact and would prefer our continued suffering as a
nation,than accepting this
honest reality! A few reports of
this reality will help us. In 2007, the Minister for
FCT,Mallam Nasir el-Rufai
declared that “Igbos have
acquired about 73 percent of
landed property in Abuja”. He was addressing a gathering
of South East elected
officials,he also revealed how
the National Chairman of the
Peoples Democratic Party, PDP,
Senator Ahmadu Ali abused him for demolishing his house
in Asokoro District in Abuja.On
a lighter mood, el-Rufai called
on the Igbos to take Abuja as
the sixth state of the South
East in view of their dominance of the real estate sector of the
FCT. He pointed out that such
dominance explains why the
Igbos appear to have been the
worst victims of the demolition
exercise in the territory.For
instance, he said 68 percent of the land allocations in the FCT
belong to the 19 Northern
states, but in actual land
ownership, 73 percent belong
to the Igbos with the most
aggressive in land ownership belonging to the indigenes of
Anambra State, while Ebonyi
lags behind. In Benue State, in 2010, when
the Igbo community resolved to
boycott the popular Zaki Biam
Yam Market, the biggest in the
nation, over disagreements
with the host community, the market ran into serious
challenges. In reaction to this,
Governor Gabriel Suswan said:
“Any state government that
ignores the Igbo does so at the
risk of its economy. It is in this wise that I
appointed a high-powered
official in my government from
the Igbo community to liaise
between me and the
community…; as we develop further, the issue of where one
hails from will no longer be an
issue because people from
other communities would
contest and win elections in
communities where they reside and have made contributions”. During the Jos crises in 2011, a
coalition of people from the
South-East , South-South and
South-West resident in Jos,
Plateau State said “that since
the crises started in the state, the Yoruba had lost property
worth N450bn; the Igbo,
N410bn; and South-South,
N110bn.The three groups from
the year 1994 to date lost
property estimated at over N970bn.” In Maiduguri in 2011, it was
reported that “the majority of
the non-natives, especially
Igbos, have resorted to selling
their houses and other landed
property, at ridiculously cheaper rates, saying that they
no longer feel safe to carry out
their businesses in Maiduguri
and other neighboring
Northern states.” In 2012, following the death of
some Igbos in a bomb
explosion in Kano, an Igbo
leader was reported as saying:
“With more than one million
Igbos and our over N20 billion investments in Kano, this is our
home away from home. And no
one can force us to return
home where… land is scarce
and expensive for setting up
new businesses.” A report this year 2013 has it
that “the Igbo community in
Kogi State has concluded plans
to launch N200 million social
responsibility fund to facilitate
development of the permanent site of a comprehensive college
under the aegis of Igbo
Community Association, Lokoja
branch”. The Igbo community in Kogi
State plan to use the
commissioning of the college
to celebrate its centenary
anniversary, which exemplifies
peaceful communal living in Nigeria. President of the association,
Mr. O.A. Achinivu, said: “The
official handover of the college
project to Kogi State
government is expected to
coincide with Nigeria’s Centenary of programmes,
under the theme: “Cultural
Integration: Veritable Tool for
National Unity.” If Nigeria wants peace, only an
Igbo president can give us
unity, peace, and progress,
because the Igbo people have
more at stake in Nigeria, than
all other federating ethnic units. You may take it or leave
it, the facts and reports speak
for themselves. Mr. CLEMENT UDEGBE, a lawyer,
wrote from Lagos.