₦airaland Forum

"As a Finance Minister immediately following the Nigerian-Biafran war, he supervised a wholesale sellout of Nigerian economic assets through his crafted Indigenization Decree. This sellout benefitted mainly businessmen from his Yoruba ethnic group and laid the foundation for the continuous decay in the political, private, public management of Nigerian human/economic reso" Mazi Bob Nwadije

Adapted from Table 7 of book quoted above
COMMERCIAL BANKS REGISTERED IN NIGERIA FROM 1892 - 1984

(Note from Aluko: I list here only those that survived are listed here,established up to after twenty-four years AFTER the end of the Nigeria-Biafra war)


Commercial Bank Date Established Remarks

1. African Banking Corporation 1892 Merged with BBWA
2. Bank of British West Africa 1894 Now First Bank of Nigeria
3. Barclays Bank DCO 1917 Now Union Bank of Nigeria
4. National Bank of Nigeria 1933 retains name
5. Agbonmagbe Bank 1945 Now WEMA Bank
6. African Continental Bank 1947 retains name; established
by the Eastern Region under
Zik
7. British and French Bank 1948 Now UBA Plc
8. Muslim Bank 1958
9. Banque de L'Afrique QUidentale 1959 Now IBWA, later Afribank
10. Bank of the North 1959
11. Bank of America NT & SA 1960 Now Savannah Bank
12. Chase Manhattan Bank 1961 Merged with FBN in 1965
13. Bank of India 1962 Now Allied Bank of Nig.
14. Arab Bank 1962 Now Nigeria-Arab Bank
15. Cooperative Bank of Western Nig1962 Now Cooperative Bank
16. Cooperative Bank of Eastern Nig1962 Now Cooperative & Commerce B.
------- Nigeria - Biafra War 1967 - 1970-----

17. Mercantile Bank Ltd. 1971
18. Pan African Bank 1971
19. New Nigeria Bank Lt. 1971
20. Kaduna Cooperative Bank 1974
21. Kano Cooperative Bank 1976
22. Societe Generale Bank 1977
23. Bank of Credit & Commerce Intl 1979
24. Owena Bank 1982
25. Progress Bank 1982
26. Lobi Bank 1982
27. Ibile Bank 1983
28. Sokoto Cooperative Bank 1983
29. Habib Nigeria Bank 1983
30. Credit Commercial de France B. 1984
31. Credit Lyonnais Commercial B. 1984

Source: Joe Umole, "Monetary and Banking Systems in Nigeria", Adi Publishers Limited, Benin City, 1985. [As quoted by Oyeniyi's book]

UNQOUTE


An inspection of the above list, and understanding of the geographical and ethnic center-of-gravity of these banks would indicate that banks and owners of banks being the greatest repository of savings, they were in the
best position of taking advantage of indigenization decree. Even then,the exercise was badly managed, and no credible data shows that much advantage accrued to NIGERIANS as a result of it.

Finally, I still do not like the harshness of the 20 pounds allocation to Ndiigbo after the war, but I have become VERY CAREFUL of facts that pass as truths in Nigeria, particularlyly in relation to Biafra and
post-Biafra, that I intend to dig further into the matter, to see the decree and its rationalizations, to have us consider what the alternatives would have been granting, that the Nigerian government had ABSOLUTELLY no
control of Biafra's ability to print money indiscriminately, and then to see what can be done at this late stage to assuage the pains associated with the 20 pounds saga. After all, they could not just hand over One
Nigeria pound for One Bifaran Pound, but there should have been a happier medium between that and a blanket 20 pounds!

Delafruita:
awolowo resigned on June 3 1971 while indigenisation decree was promulgated in 1972 and took effect in April 1974.the author couldn't even do a simple research.Awolowo had earlier made known his intention to resign immediately after the civil war but in his own words

June 3, 1971.

My dear Commander-in-Chief,

You will recall that in a statement made by me and published in the SUNDAY TIMES of March 30, 1969, I declared, among other things, as follows:

“Even at the federal level, I have no desire whatsoever, and I certainly cannot be tempted or induced to develop one, to head, or participate in an unelected or even an electoral-college elected civil administration in a military or any setting. At the moment, I am participating in the activities of the military government because I have been invited, and I also think it is right, so to do.
I am, therefore, obliged, morally and for the purpose of keeping Nigeria united, to take part, as fully as I can, in any measure designed, in particular, to keep the Ibos as a constituent ethnic unit in the federation of Nigeria, enjoying equal and identical status and benefits with other ethnic units, and in general, to preserve Nigeria as an economic and political entity.”

I should have, in accordance with this declaration, relinquished my present offices soon after the end of the civil war in January last year. But one main matter decided me against such an immediate course of action. As you know, before January 1970, the four-year development and reconstruction plan had been under active preparation, and it had been hoped that it would be launched early in the 1970/71 fiscal year. It was my strong desire to participate in the consideration of this plan. As it turned out, however, the plan was not actually considered until August 1970."

That is an excerpt from his letter of resignation

you know in an intellectual discuss like this, the empty vessels resort to abuse. This theory has been proved by you...i think nothing of you but just omo alata mentality

coolitempa:
I don't care what.....psychos like you think about me......all I know is that your lies will always be put to shame......you miserable vagabond....

tonychristopher:
This piece was prompted by what I saw as benign ignorance amongst some of our Ibo 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 Ibo have advanced the argument that if Ibo was that smart,[b] how come Yorubas dominated the commerce industry in Nigeria? [/b]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 stolen those corporations) while Ibo is 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. 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.

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 Ibo. In so doing, majority of us dabble into analysis of how terrible Ibo 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 Ibo was wicked and dastardly. The economic damage on the Ibo is impossible to calculate. The psychological toll on the Ibo is still reverberating amongst the Ibo 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 a million Ibo 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 happen, it is simply that they do not what to believe that it happened because it is mind bending. 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 Ibo 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 Ibo packed their bags and left Lagos to the east –ala Ibo, 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 Ibo 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 Ibo standard and that Ibo 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.

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 economic 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, ever y 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 save 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.

“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. 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 Ibo dominated the economic work force followed by the Yoruba, when British/Biafran war started, Ibo, for their safety left their jobs in different parts of the country to return to the east, the Ibo land. After the end of the war, the Ibo went back to seek for their jobs that they left for security reasons, the Yoruba who took advantage and occupied the positions that Ibo left decided that they will not relinquish those position because according to the Yoruba, Ibo 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 Ibo 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 Ibo 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 Ibo any way possible. 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 Ibo will assume their prominent positions. In order to prevent the British from re-absorbing the Ibo 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 guide, 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 Ibo 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 worst 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. 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 Ibo 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 Ibo understanding

a) That Yoruba was fully running every conceivable federal parastatals

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 Ibo and putting a finishing touch to it by

a) Stealing through confiscating all the millions of pounds that Ibo had in all the Nigerian banks

b) Offering every Ibo person £20 pounds regardless of how many millions they had in the Nigerian banks before the war.

c) Militarizing every part of Ibo land.

d) Rendering every Ibo without exception a pauper.

e) Banning every importation of stock fish and used clothes to deprive the Ibo of any economic ability to compete with the Yoruba in buying into the British assets.

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 Ibo land, It was a dark history day, it was a day of manifest wickedness and viciousness, Ibo was dumbfounded, the days that followed were days of economic , social and psychological morose and confusion that are still lingering today within the Ibo. It might be hard to accept but Awo got the Ibo good and the country as well, he brought the Ibo to his knees economically at least temporarily and Ibo 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 Ibo leadership and through Ibo into great confusion.

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 Ibo became traders, this is the why. The Yoruba will not let any Ibo near the management of any of these stolen corporations, will not let Ibo 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 Ibo 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 Ibo 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 Ibo 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.

My next piece will try to capture the mind blowing implications of that great heist as it relates to Nigerians and Ibo in particular and the flight of international investment from Nigerian for decades.

Fredrick.


http://www.igbofocus.co.uk/The-Biafran-War/The-Greatest-Heist-in-Modern-H/the-greatest-heist-in-modern-history-by-awolowo-and-the-yorubas-.html

My Igbo brothers. Hmmmm........some of you just like twisting facts upside down just to make yourself saints and others devil. By the way,i never knew that the Yorubas had ever at anytime controlled the economy until now. Going by what 99% of my Igbo friends on nairaland say,Igbos control the economy of Nigeria and West Africa. They also own 70% of Lagos

It is obvious that many Igbos see Yorubas in their dreams. Wake up to reality, Yorubas dont hate you. I know that for sure. Most times when i come hear to see some hateful comments here i feel like crying because most are unguided and uninformed.

tonychristopher:
you know in an intellectual discuss like this, the empty vessels resort to abuse. This theory has been proved by you...i think nothing of you but just omo alata mentality

And you reckon your ilk is capable of holding a constructive intellectual discussion......

DoTheNeedful:
My Igbo brothers. Hmmmm........some of you just like twisting facts upside down just to make yourself saints and others devil. By the way,i never knew that the Yorubas had ever at anytime controlled the economy until now. Go by what 99% of my Igbo friends on nairaland say,Igbos control the economy of Nigeria and West Africa. They also own 70% of Lagos

It is obvious that many Igbos see Yorubas in their dreams. Wake up to reality, Yorubas dont hate you. I know that for sure. Most times when i come hear to see some hateful comments here i feel like crying because most are unguided and uninformed.

Most of those ibos are the petty traders...like tonychristopher.....inferiority complex is the real problem not Yorubas....... ...there are competent ibos proving they are not bothered with this hatred.....

they controlled the economy during a lacuna period when the igbois were busy fighting biafran war for three years and post war years for four years...that was all then Igbos bounced back again...they even chased ghana peeps via their ghana must go things...seems they avoid competition even till date


these are historical facts, yes they might be embarrasing but they are facts

DoTheNeedful:
My Igbo brothers. Hmmmm........some of you just like twisting facts upside down just to make yourself saints and others devil. By the way,i never knew that the Yorubas had ever at anytime controlled the economy until now. Go by what 99% of my Igbo friends on nairaland say,Igbos control the economy of Nigeria and West Africa. They also own 70% of Lagos

It is obvious that many Igbos see Yorubas in their dreams. Wake up to reality, Yorubas dont hate you. I know that for sure. Most times when i come hear to see some hateful comments here i feel like crying because most are unguided and uninformed.

coolitempa:
Most of those ibos are the petty traders...like tonychristopher.....inferiority complex is the real problem not Yorubas....... ...there are competent ibos proving they are not bothered with this hatred.....

oookk lol so if I say most of theessee yorrubass are aggbeeeerro

walemoney007:
pls tell me d year d indeginisation degree was passed in Nigeria,and tell me d year awolowo resigned from d gowon government?

awolowo, obj, etal were given their fair share of the spoil. leaving government does not change the bounty.

coolitempa:
Most of those ibos are the petty traders...like tonychristopher.....inferiority complex is the real problem not Yorubas....... ...there are competent ibos proving they are not bothered with this hatred.....

Oh instead of you to tackle the subject matter yet you call most of these igbos petty traders, this is not a tribal bashing thread what if I call most yorubas are agbero....but wait a minute..must you comment and disgrace yourself .

I think you lack facts, truth is sacrosanct so face it

@OP, you forgot to add all those billion naira Yoruba mega churches, the atlantic ocean, the Lekki Epe peninnsular, the Oshun Oshogbo festival, Olumo Rock, those private universities, and the intelligence, patience and determination with which Yoruba's were able to string these things together were all stolen from the Igbos, read my lips, do your worst.

7lives:
@OP, you forgot to add all those billion naira Yoruba mega churches, the atlantic ocean, the Lekki Epe peninnsular, the Oshun Oshogbo festival, Olumo Rock, those private universities, and the intelligence, patience and determination with which Yoruba's were able to string these things together were all stolen from the Igbos, read my lips, do your worst.

this is no commedy ...so religion is now a business in yoruba land...thanks for reminding us that .....

Who truly cares my Brother? At the end, there is poverty in Lagos just like in Enugu. My take on this write up is that the Igbo's have overcome these challenges and moved on. History should be documented properly as history. There is no how this thread will not provide materials for tribal bigotry. Proudly Igbo yet proudly Nigerian.

I live by conviction that it is ticking time bomb to keep people as incompatible as Igbos/Yorubas/Hausa-Fulani together. Everything that has happened since 1960 to date points to this fact. I do not need a soothsayer to know that the country is heading down the road of disintegration. I can't help but wonder that if Yorubas and Igbos had been compatible, they could have made one hell'uva team. We look to the future and what it brings.

"Igbos are wandering Jews of West Africa - gifted, aggressive, westernized, and at best, envied and resented, but mostly despised by their neighbors in the Federation---" (a White House Memo on Biafra January 28, 1969 to President Nixon by Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger) (Source : U.S Foreign Relations Documents Volume 5 , 1969).


In 1964 the World Bank named Eastern Nigeria the fastest growing regional economy on earth. At the time of this assessment, Eastern Nigeria was made up of the present five states of the South East, plus four out of the present six states of the South South. Reason for the assessment was that in 1964, Nigeria was the world’s largest producer and exporter of palm oil and palm kernel. Above 90 per cent of the palm oil and palm kernel came from Eastern Nigeria. Nigeria was the world’s largest producer of cassava. Above 60 per cent of Nigeria’s cassava was produced in Eastern Nigeria. By 1964, garri, yam and palm oil from Eastern Nigeria were sold in South Africa, Great Britain and the United States. Coal mining had reached commercial production and Eastern Nigeria had started making money from Nigeria's coal export. By 1964 the Eastern Nigeria Development Corporation (ENDC) was Eastern Nigeria’s next highest employer of labor after the regional government itself; producing high quality garri, rice, vegetable oil, fresh eggs, frozen fish, frozen chicken, frozen beef, frozen pork and pork sausages, for domestic distribution and export...

I can still get more info if the children of hate are not yet satisfied...

tonychristopher:
they controlled the economy during a lacuna period when the igbois were busy fighting biafran war for three years and post war years for four years...that was all then Igbos bounced back again...they even chased ghana peeps via their ghana must go things...seems they avoid competition even till date


these are historical facts, yes they might be embarrasing but they are facts

opinion can never be substituted for fact.its a fact that the igbos are industrious just as it is a fact that the yoruba are industrious same as the hausas and the nupes and the efik and the ibibio and almost every tribe in nigeria.

Delafruita:
opinion can never be substituted for fact.its a fact that the igbos are industrious just as it is a fact that the yoruba are industrious same as the hausas and the nupes and the efik and the ibibio and almost every tribe in nigeria.

ok