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Before We Forget by pazienza(m): 5:54pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
[b] The Greatest Heist in Modern History by Awolowo and the Yorubas, Known as Indigenization of Foreign Companies in Nigeria, by FREDERICK ONWUMBIKO This piece was prompted by what I saw as benign ignorance amongst some of our Igbo folks and because such ignorance is music to the ears of some other people and Yoruba in particular. In more than one occasion, my friends and other Igbo have advanced the argument that if Igbo was that smart, how come Yorubas dominated the commerce industry in Nigeria? What they meant were the domination of Yoruba in the banking, insurance industries, Coco Cola and some other surviving industries. In one particular occasion a friend revealed to me that he recently discovered that the reason why some Yoruba are so wealthy is because they were smart enough to invest their money in corporate stocks and bonds (not realizing that Yoruba actually stole those corporations) while Igbo was busy engaging in buying and selling. The Yoruba will like people to continue to believe that story, that it was because they were smart that they were able to do all these great investments in the commerce industry. [/b] 2 Likes |
Re: Before We Forget by ladyF(f): 5:56pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
Ok |
Re: Before We Forget by pazienza(m): 6:00pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
[b] One relevant question that I always
managed to ask my interlocutors is
whether they were aware of the
indigenization decree of 1972, master
minded by Awolowo and the Yoruba and
the ramifications of that policy. As will be
expected, the answer ranged from, I have
heard of it but does not understand what
it actually meant to I have not heard of
the policy. Listening to this ignorance
induced perspective from my friends
made my heart to skip a beat, realizing
that the task of bridging this information
gap is not going to be a child’s play.
What is disconcerting is that some in
their benign induced ignorance believe
that the effect of indigenization is
inconsequential at this time because it
happened about forty years ago. This
piece is therefore for those that are
educable and for those that have the
capacity to appreciate the magnitude and
most importantly for those that can relate
that gigantic economic event that
reshaped the economic foundation on
which Nigerian economy settled on after
the British/Biafran war and as well as
relate our present economic malaise to
that economic foundation engendered by
indigenization. [/b] |
Re: Before We Forget by pazienza(m): 6:02pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
[b] There is no doubt that most people,
particularly those that do not have either
basic or international economics
background are overwhelmed by the
subject of INDIGENIZATION OF FOREIGN
COMPANIES IN NIGERIA because of their
inability to understand the economics of it
and the efficacies to make the necessary
connections and relate it to the present
economic doldrums, some simply brush it
aside or worse, simple minimize its far
reaching implications particularly on the
Igbo. In so doing, majority of us dabble
into analysis of how terrible Igbo has
managed their affairs since after the civil
war, while leaving out a huge chunk of the
elements that need to be factored into
their analysis. The unspeakable effect of
the policy of indigenization on the Igbo
was wicked and dastardly. The economic
damage on the Igbo is impossible to
calculate. The psychological toll on the
Igbo is still reverberating amongst the
Igbo today and creating identity crisis.
Some folks will argue that we should drop
the subject because it happened forty
years ago, which is equivalent to saying
that because slavery, Jim Crow and the
holocaust happened years ago, and for that
reason, they have no relevance in today’s
analysis. How can any credible analysis of
American history not include slavery and
its implications, or how can any Jewish
history not include the Holocaust and its
implications and effects, but that is what
some folks want us to do, to avoid or
forget one of the most devastating
economic policies that changed the
economic landmark of Nigeria, second to
the genocide of more than three million
Igbo committed by the same man, Awo,
and still arrive at any meaningful analysis.
I believe that the incredulity that any ethnic
group is capable of visiting such
devastation on another is still an obstacle
that the subject is struggling against and
must overcome. It is not that most people
do not know what happened, it is simply
that they do not want to believe that it
happened because it is mind-bending. [/b] |
Re: Before We Forget by pazienza(m): 6:06pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
[b] . I
also believe that if we do not tell the story
over and over, the Yorubas will not tell and
neither will the Hausa tell it, as a matter of
fact they always wish that it will go away.
So whether they like it or not, we must
continue to broadcast what happened until
people start to understand the effect of the
policy not only on the Igbo but on the
nation as a whole. Suffice to say that after
Awo and the Yoruba succeeded in
executing the indigenization decree and
became overnight millionaires, many Igbo
packed their bags and left Lagos to the
East –ala Igbo, where they shortly died out
of heart break because some of them also
suffered the deprivation of their properties
due to Abandon Property Policy in Lagos
and Port Harcourt.
WHAT ENGENDERED THE INDIGENIZATION
POLICY?
It is no more news worthy to point out
that before the civil war that Igbo out of
their capacity for honesty, to work hard, to
produce, to innovate, to manage, create
and persevere were able to penetrate all
facets of Nigerian endeavor, when the
British used merit as a yard stick. It is an
irrefragable fact that even Yoruba would
not dare challenge that fact, if not, what
started the Yoruba hate, envy and jealousy
against the Ibo in the first place, Yoruba
and Hausa claimed that Ibo was
dominating everything in the country but
what they will not acknowledge publicly
was the fact that the British were making
the decisions about who to hire by their
own standard and not by Igbo standard
and that Igbo was good at what they did
and better than them. The Yoruba and
Hausa wanted not only equal opportunity
they also wanted equal outcome
regardless of effort and everyone knows
that that is impossible. [/b] 1 Like |
Re: Before We Forget by coolitempa(f): 6:07pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
iboes blaming baba awo for every misery in their lives....... ....after giving them free education Na wa o.... ....so Nigeria should not have indigenised because ibos did not know when and how to invest 1 Like |
Re: Before We Forget by pazienza(m): 6:07pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
[b] There is one very important fact in my analysis that I want everyone to get, and that is that before the civil war, Nigeria as a nation did not have an economy of its own. Let me say it again, that Nigeria as a nation before the British/Biafran civil war did not have an economy of its own. I emphasized that point in other to say that whatever seemed like Nigerian economy were British owned. Put differently, if you excluded few of the regional cooperatives and some joint ventures businesses which were mostly British engineered to make buying raw materials easy for the British, every other aspect of the economy were owned majorly by the British, even the military, given the fact that almost every military supply came from Britain. It is then safe to say that British investment in Nigeria amounted to a great totality of Nigerian economy or that Nigerian economy was at that time synonymous to the total investment of the British. Below, courtesy of Africa Today are the list of some of the companies that constituted Nigerian economy before the war that the Yoruba stole in one swoop, spanning the insurance companies like Lloyd’s of London and all the banks in Nigeria owned one way or the other by the British. This is but a partial list of what constituted the British investment in Nigerian economy. [/b] |
Re: Before We Forget by coolitempa(f): 6:11pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
pazienza: thunder fire your lying ibo flat.head there....idiat..... ..animal......oni ro buruku.....abandoned property in the south west....the same awo that saved all ibo properties in the SW and ensured that they collected their rent and saved their rent for them even when fighting Nigeria 1 Like |
Re: Before We Forget by pazienza(m): 6:16pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
coolitempa: Cool down, this is not just about Awo. This is beyond Awo. Allow me to land first. 2 Likes |
Re: Before We Forget by pazienza(m): 6:19pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
[b] “Pharmaceutical Nigeria Plc ,May and Baker
Nigeria Plc, Vitafoam Nigeria Plc, Wahum
Nigeria Limited ,CAP Nigeria Plc ,
International Paints of West Africa [IPWA],
Berger Paints Nigeria Plc, Berec Nigeria
Limited, Kabelmetal, Nigeria Bottling
Company Plc, Leventis Nigeria Plc ,West
African Portland Cement Company,
[Lafarge ],Wema Bank Nigeria Plc, Scoa
Nigeria Plc ,CFAO Nigeria Plc, Cadbury
Nigeria Plc, Wemaboard Estates, Odua
Group, Livestock Feeds Nigeria Plc ,
Nigerian Breweries Plc, new Nigerian Bank,
Batta, Kingsway Stores, Crittal Hope
(Nigeria) Limited, Mushin, Lagos State.
Dunlop (Nig.) Industries Plc, Ikeja, Lagos
State. Galvanising Industries Limited, Ikeja,
Lagos State. Nigeria Construction & Water
Resources Development Company Limited,
Ibadan, Oyo State Nigerian Wire & Cable
Plc, Ibadan, Oyo State Nigerite PLC, Ikeja,
Lagos State Nipol Limited, Ibadan, Oyo
State Odu’a Textile Industries Limited,
Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State Soleh Boneh Overseas
(Nigeria) Limited, Ibadan, Oyo State Vono
Products Plc, Mushin, Lagos State Wema
Bank Plc, Marina, Lagos West African
Portland Cement Plc, Ikeja, Lagos State
Great Nigeria Insurance PLC, Ikoyi, Lagos
State Glanvill Enthoven & Company Limited
◦Guinness (Nig.) Plc, Ikeja, Lagos State.
◦International Breweries Plc, Ilesa, Osun
State. ◦Macmillian Publishers (Nig)
Limited, Ilupeju, Lagos ◦Nestle Food (Nig)
Plc, Ikeja, Lagos State ◦Nidogas Company
Limited, Lagos State ◦Niger Mills Company
Limited, Calabar, Cross River State
◦Nigerian Aluminium Extrusions Limited,
Lagos ◦SKG-Pharma (Nig.) Limited, Lagos
◦Tower Aluminium (Nig.) Plc, Lagos ◦U. A.
C. of Nigeria Plc., Lagos etc.
The necessity of inserting this partial list
of the companies/assets that existed
before the war was to give the reader a
sense of the extent of what the issue is all
about and who owned what and when. [/b] 1 Like |
Re: Before We Forget by pazienza(m): 6:23pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
[b] The
Yoruba hardly owned much of anything or
any of these assets listed above except in
some regional joint cooperative ventures
with the British.
The story went like this, before the war the
Igbo dominated the economic work force
followed by the Yoruba, when British/
Biafran war started, Igbo, for their safety
left their jobs in different parts of the
country to return to the East, the Igbo
land. After the end of the war, the Igbo
went back to seek for their jobs that they
left for security reasons, the Yoruba who
took advantage and occupied the
positions that Igbo left decided that they
will not relinquish those position because
according to the Yoruba, Igbo abandoned
their positions and do not deserve their
position back, reminiscent of the abandon
property thievery in Port Harcourt River
State and Lagos. However, a dynamic
developed as Igbo every morning dressed
up and went and occupied the lobbies of
their different offices that they used to
work in. Tell me, if this is not manifest
bravery of the highest order ever exhibited
by any group in Nigeria and we are talking
about days and weeks immediately after
the war was declared over. But the final
say as to whether or not the positions
that Ibo left for dire life was going to be
declared abandoned rested on the British
that owned these companies. As the back
and forth went on, the British started
angling to make an economic decision
because they understood the difference
between the Ibo worker and the Yoruba
worker and the three years of the civil war
made that difference even more crystal
clear to the British, if not, why would the
British bother to accommodate the Igbo
after such a long time? What became
clear to the Yoruba was that the British
were willing to make extra provision to re-
absorb the Igbo any way possible. [/b] 2 Likes |
Re: Before We Forget by IdisuleOurOwn(m): 6:26pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
Yawns |
Re: Before We Forget by pazienza(m): 6:27pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
[b] Yoruba
was not ready to tolerate any of that
because they knew that it was a matter of
time before the wheat will be separated
from the shaft that Igbo will assume their
prominent positions. In order to prevent
the British from re-absorbing the Igbo into
these British owned companies, the
corporate Yoruba decided to solicit the
help of Awolowo who was then the
finance minister and chairman of the
federal military council.
This is where a plan was hashed to wrest
the control of these companies, consisting
of banks, insurance companies,
corporations of different kinds and types
from the British. The best way Awo and
his cabal found fit was to convince Gowon
and the military leadership who in all
probability have never had the word
indigenization in their lives to promulgate
the INDIGENIZATION DECREE in 1972 that
stipulated that every foreign owned
venture must transfer majority ownership
to Nigerian indigenes within a year of the
promulgation of the decree or they will
forfeit the assets of the company to the
Nigerian government. (Emphasis within a
year) As expected, the British were caught
off guard, not understanding the motive
behind the policy, the British thought it
was a dream or a joke that will go away,
particularly given the fact that they just
won the war against the Igbo for the
Yoruba and Hausa. After exhausting six
months out of the one year in their bid to
reverse the decree, the British became
frantic and concluded that they could not
reverse the decree and went about trying
to salvage whatever they could. What was
worse was that the British did not even
have enough time to evaluate the worth of
their ventures because of the limited time
the decree allowed, courtesy of Awo and
cabal. The situation gave chaos a new
name because the British were in chaos. [/b] 3 Likes |
Re: Before We Forget by pazienza(m): 6:32pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
[b] So the first problem the British ran into
was limited time that they couldn’t figure
what the value of majority of their
ventures were, they could not tell how
much to sell them for. Mind you that this
was happening within a year after the end
of the civil war. At this time the Yoruba
was running every conceivable federal
ministries, departments and agencies plus
all the corporations listed above and more
that the British owned. It is important to
point out that the North had little or no
presence in the commerce economy of
the country before the war and after the
war except in the military leadership and
infantry. The economy of the country was
dominated by Igbo first and Yoruba
second before the war. In order to solidify
the economic dominance that the Yoruba
attained during and after the war and to
make their position even more potent in
acquiring the British spoils, Awo as the
finance minister and chairman of the
federal military council and his Yoruba
cabal decided to economically emasculate
the Igbo understanding
a) That Yoruba was fully running every
conceivable federal parastatal
b) That Yoruba was running every
conceivable corporation that the British
owned or had majority ownership as listed
above.
c) That Yoruba was managing all the
Nigerian banks, insurance corporations,
National shipping line, Nigerian airways,
Nigerian’s Ports authority, Nigerian
Railways and all the ministries,
Departments and Agencies conceivable.
Decided to destroy whatever was left of the
Igbo and putting a finishing touch to it by
a) Stealing through confiscating all the
millions of pounds that Igbo had in all the
Nigerian banks
b) Offering every Igbo person £20 pounds
regardless of how many millions they had
in the Nigerian banks before the war.
c) Militarizing every part of Igbo land.
d) Rendering every Igbo without exception
a pauper.
e) Banning every importation of stock fish
and used clothes to deprive the Igbo of
any economic ability to compete with the
Yoruba in buying into the British assets. [/b] 3 Likes |
Re: Before We Forget by coolitempa(f): 6:35pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
Complete bunkum....makes no sense......another made up crap.... |
Re: Before We Forget by pazienza(m): 6:35pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
[b] When that day of infamy arrived for the
British to start selling their assets, Igbo
having been disenfranchised and
emasculated in any and every way stood
on the sideline watching the Yoruba in
their glee as they scrambled to obtain
loans from their Yoruba dominated banks
to make the most minimal of offers to the
British as there were no competitions. The
British had no choice but to accept any
offer as the alternative was losing
everything to the federal government. The
British lost pretty much all their investment
to the Yoruba whose stock in trade is
robbing and stealing any and everything
they can get their hands on. Thousands of
Yoruba became millionaires overnight and
there was jubilation and owanbe all over
Yoruba land. Yoruba had parties day and
night and weekends. They closed streets
to display their new found wealth as they
partied. That day marked the economic
death of Nigeria, that day marked the death
of Nigerian’s aspiration to join the civilized
world. The implication was enormous and
it sent a shock wave throughout the Igbo
land, It was a dark history day, it was a day
of manifest wickedness and viciousness,
Igbo was dumbfounded, the days that
followed were days of economic , social
and psychological morose and confusion
that are still lingering today within the
Igbo. It might be hard to accept but Awo
got the Igbo good and the country as well,
he brought the Igbo to his knees
economically at least temporarily and Igbo
has never recovered from that one blow
seven akpus in any appreciable way but
Nigeria as whole is worse off for it. I
believe that what was more devastating
was that Ibo had no place or body to turn
to. To be blunt, Awo decapitated the Igbo
leadership and threw Igbo into great
confusion. [/b] 4 Likes |
Re: Before We Forget by pazienza(m): 6:38pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
[b] It is important to note that by this singular
act of INDIGENIZATION DECREE engineered
by the Yoruba, the Yoruba de facto
constituted the new economic foundation,
the sole owner and manager of Nigerian
economy without any rivals. So, for those
that have wondered why Igbo became
traders, this is the why. The Yoruba will
not let any Igbo near the management of
any of these stolen corporations, will not
let Igbo buy any shares of these
corporations for decades following the
heist. Now, some people without the
capacity to comprehend the full seismic
implication of this economic shift and
restructuring will want us to believe that
this does not matter and I will beg to
disagree because it is like everything else,
the foundation of everything matters and
determines the success or failure, be it a
house or business. As time has revealed,
Yoruba stealing and forming the economic
foundation for Nigeria was a bad idea and
a monumental disaster. For the ignorants,
all things being equal (in a fair fight) the
Yoruba knew it, the British knew it, the Igbo
knew it and the world knew it that the
Yoruba did not possess the capacity,
creativity, drive, perseverance, hard work
and the competence to do what some are
crediting to it if they did not conspire to
steal not only from the British and Igbo but
from everybody else that had any assets in
Nigeria. The apparent dominant control the
Yoruba has on the economy since after the
war was not out of great honest smartness
or creativity or innovation or hard work or
competence but out of share robbery of
the British and Igbo sweat and hard work. I
believe that the question that the benign
ignorant should be asking going forward is
what did Yoruba do with all these assets
and corporations that they stole. How did
the country fair under the Yoruba
management of the Nigerian economy?
How did the Yoruba managed economy
relate to today’s economic malaise? Hope
they can make the connections. [/b] 3 Likes |
Re: Before We Forget by pazienza(m): 6:40pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
Re: Before We Forget by Spybradd: 6:42pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
IdisuleOurOwn: see them,ppl without certificate....education must be haramic to you! Abeg park.. |
Re: Before We Forget by pazienza(m): 6:43pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
‘Every man should endeavor to understand the meaning of subjugation before it is too late. It means the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy; that our youth will be trained by Northern schoolteachers; will learn from Northern school books their version of the war; will be impressed by the influences of history and education to regard our gallant dead as traitors, and our maimed veterans as fit objects for derision. ...’ - General Patrick Cleburne So now that we have a historical baseline to compare the contribution of all parts of Nigeria. Including those who mismanaged Nigerian economy, killed and stole to death through incompetence and mis management, British companies they stole. Having failed to grow these companies to world class companies capable of employing teaming graduates contributed in creating unemployment in Nigeria. 2 Likes |
Re: Before We Forget by coolitempa(f): 6:43pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
Thunder strike ur flat.head a million times.....oloshi...... ...Awo that left after the war was behind indigenisation of years later I smh @ ur people's wickedness....and lies.... |
Re: Before We Forget by Spybradd: 6:45pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
coolitempa: fish brain.. Otondo thick pòmó.. see e nyansh up ^^there..wo i dey under de view everything nò gas there,abeg. |
Re: Before We Forget by coolitempa(f): 6:46pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
pazienza: see this goat......claiming yorubas stopped iboes from buying publicly traded shares....How is that even possible |
Re: Before We Forget by IdisuleOurOwn(m): 6:49pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
Re: Before We Forget by pazienza(m): 6:53pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
The point of the thread: Yorubas by hook or crook hijacked the Nigerian formal economy, and forced Ndiigbo a people who headed the civil service before then into the informal sector, ie trading. How well did the Yorubas manage those companies? And the Nigerian economy by extension? All mismanaged and stolen to death, with the proceed used to start New personal companies. How far has the traders come? Very far. https://www.nairaland.com/2263635/south-east-south-west-south-south-lead-attainment https://www.nairaland.com/237534/look-going-school-nigeria-statistics 3 Likes |
Re: Before We Forget by Spybradd: 6:55pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
IdisuleOurOwn: |
Re: Before We Forget by CyberWolf: 7:00pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
This is heart touching but God de..No be this naija we de? We shall see 2 Likes |
Re: Before We Forget by pazienza(m): 7:07pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
"Having said that, this nation must realise that Igbos have more than paid for their foolishness. They have been defeated in war, rendered paupers by monetary policy fiat, their properties declared abandoned and confiscated, kept out of strategic public sector appointments and deprived of public services". Sanusi Lamido Not often do Arewa-Odua people expose themselves, but I think it's this same Yorubas heist of the Nigerian economy that Sanusi is speaking of here. 3 Likes |
Re: Before We Forget by pazienza(m): 7:11pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
How Ironic is it, that the same people that hijacked the Nigerian formal economy and the civil service since 1970, Will now turn around and ask Ndiigbo of our contribution to the FG? 2 Likes |
Re: Before We Forget by pazienza(m): 7:22pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
"The Federal Character Commission has recently released a report which shows that the South-West accounts for 27.8% of civil servants in the range GL08 to GL14 and a full 29.5% of GL 15 and above. One zone out of six zones controls a full 30% of the civil service leaving the other five zones to share the remaining 70%. We find the same story in the economy, in academia, in parastatals". Here is to how they hijacked the civil service. |
Re: Before We Forget by pazienza(m): 7:26pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
So, the real question is, how much have Yoruba taken from Nigeria? Infact, I think I need to change the title of this thread. 2 Likes |
Re: Before We Forget by prodigy24: 9:54am On Aug 18, 2017 |
pazienza:This is very clear that's why they filled all the companies with incompetent accountants everywhere.. 1 Like |
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