₦airaland Forum

The Greatest Heist in Modern History By Awolowo and the Yorubas Known as Indigenization of Foreign Companies in Nigeria

Chief Obafemi Awolowo

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, 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 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, Ek

Yea,he is to some people,but not to everyone

Trash
Written like you would expect from every jealous,moronic, self hating and uneducated villager.
One who lack the aptitude or logically reasoning to function in a normal society.
What exactly are these idiotts playing at?
Is it to create the basis for a genocide against the Oodua nation?

For those interested in something more academic. You can start from here. Written by a Brit.
If you want to learn more, there are more resources online from university papers to journals.

http://www.roape.org/pdf/1405.pdf


Written by Uzor
https://www.hs-bremen.de/internet/studium/stg/isvw/conferences/impactonafrica/full_text_8_uzor.pdf

The indigenous policy was conceived in 1956. Guess who was in charge of the country?
Bunch of miseducated Mofos.

--------------HISTORY OF MAY AND BAKER ----------
From their prospectus

the United Kingdom where in 1834, three chemists founded Grimwade, May & Pickett, a firm for manufacturing chemicals for pharmaceutical products. In 1839 Grimwade, May & Pickett transformed into May & Baker United Kingdom Limited following some changes in the ownership. May & Baker (UK) Limited became the subsidiary of Poulenc Freres by 1927 but when in 1928 the latter merged with another French company, Rhone, May & Baker UK Limited became part of the new company, Rhone Poulenc. Despite the change in status of the parent company, Rhone-Poulenc did not assume direct supervision of the Nigerian company until 1990.
An expansion project by May & Baker UK Limited led to the establishment of May & Baker (West Africa) Limited in Lagos, Nigeria in 1944 to create a trading outpost in the West Coast of Africa. At inception the Company’s office was at 17A, Tinubu Street, Lagos. The Company subsequently relocated to Ikeja its present site. In 1976, it built its present factory at Ikeja where it began local manufacture of pharmaceuticals. That same year it changed its name from May & Baker (West Africa) to May & Baker Nigeria Limited.
. In 1979, following the indigenisation decree which required that foreign interests in companies operating in Nigeria be of a minority nature, May & Baker, United Kingdom relinquished 60 per cent of its equity holding in May & Baker Nigeria to Nigerians while retaining 40 per cent . The Company’s name was changed to Embechem Nigeria Limited but this was dropped later and the name reverted to May & Baker Nigeria Limited.
May & Baker Nigeria Limited became a publicly-quoted company following its Listing by introduction,

history of all these companies.
1 They were established in the western region,
2 They were paying 50% of their taxes to the western region
3 they would still have have been paying 50 % of all their taxes today ( company, corporate,vat, withholding) to the western region if these clowns had not conspired to destroy the structure of the country.

Were there no companies in anambra ?
Let me guess, your leaders were buying looting, drinking hard at work trying to mess up other people's land and conspiring while others were attracting investors.

https://www.vitafoamng.com/vitafoam-history.htm

Odua group - you must be having a laugh. A company set up to be an investment vehicle for all oodua states

will comment later

IkpuMmadu:
The Greatest Heist in Modern History By Awolowo and the Yorubas Known as Indigenization of Foreign Companies in Nigeria

Chief Obafemi Awolowo

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, 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 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, Ek

.

You covet the companies in oyo as well?
Why not add eleganza, folawiyo, elizade etc to your list.

-------------

OUR SERVICES

Wemabod Estates Limited is one of Nigeria’s leading Real Estate firms offering services in property development and property management. In addition to an impressive portfolio of historical Real Estate landmarks in Nigeria, the company is currently expanding its portfolio of properties managed and developed. Property Management, Property Development, Appraisal of Building Projects, Feasibility and Viability Studies, Agency – Purchase/Sale of Properties, Project Management, Preparation of Bill of Quantities.

WHO WE ARE

The Company was first formed in September 1962 with a share capital of 10,000 pounds. It was then a wholly owned subsidiary of the defunct National Bank of Nigeria Limited and called Nabani Estates. In October of the same year, [/b]the Bank sold its shareholdings for 1,231,000 pounds to the [b] Western Nigerian Marketing Board at Ibadan and the name of the Company was changed to Wemabod Estates Limited.
http://wemabod.com

Who was prime minister or president in 1962. The enemies.
1 Balewa
2 Nnamdi Azikwe.

Let me guess, the British were moving out, Balewa and azikwe igbo- north dominated government set up a company.
They realised that the company required professional corporate skills which they they their people lacked.
They gutted the company and happily sold what was left of it to obtain quick beer fix money.

Wemabod exist today due to superior management.
Where is your national bank of Nigeria ltd

AWO had more brains in his left little finger than all other regional and national governments in Nigeria combined since independence. He set the pace and others followed and yet he never became President. When you look at the clueless drunken people we have had in that office you tend to believe that a people get the government they deserve.

Of course Awo is definitely a great statesman.

Ignorance, hate, jealousy..inferiority complex....will kill these iPod goats...who have been brewed on an overdose of lies...indigenisation happened long after Baba Awo had left government...na WA for these evil people o....

No matter how much One seeks to always avoid these kind of threads in order not to add more fuel to a raging inferno , human nature can only accommodate so much!!!


Let's agree that Pa Awolowo did any of the peddled falsehood, what stopped your people from replicating the idea since you are the "brains" & every other tribe is only envious..

Should have been a cake walk& also done in record time...

Did he also prevent your " non existent statesmen" from copying the free education model? Made your leaders unwise & incapable of realizing that education was, still is & will forever remain the tool for holistic development.

Eshinwaju:
Ignorance, hate, jealousy..inferiority complex....will kill these iPod goats...who have been brewed on an overdose of lies...indigenisation happened long after Baba Awo had left government...na WA for these evil people o....

You can go through every single one of those companies and their history.
Those companies were told to sell shares to Nigerians.
Those which were privately held were told to go public.
Those dependent on importing raw materials were told to look for local sources.
the companies were still controlled by the foreigners after the exercise.
From teacher to civil servant, anybody had the opportunity to buy shares.
But as usual in Nigeria, some local toughs will always want to muscle in on an opportunity.
As a whole, the indigenisation was largely successful until crude oil boom turned the country upside down and other SE tors were neglected.
With the oil bust, the Nigerian economy went into a tail spin and all the foreigner started dumping their 40% holdings and leaving our shores for good.
Many of those who bought holdings had no clue of what to do with them and the corruption in government accentuated the problem.
The likes of Rufus Giwa and Shonekan were able to downsize the companies they were managing,to meet current realities and survive the onslaught.
Those companies still exist today.
He even had the nerve to put berec there.
A foreign brand which does not exist today because of more technologically advanced brands like Duracell or cheap ones like tiger


They want what you have but they are not ready to work for it. They vote for idiotttttts but when they do not perform, they blame everybody else. For 5 years, their elites hijacked the government of the country.
With record revenues,can anybody tell me the outcome

Adminisher:
AWO had more brains in his left little finger than all other regional and national governments in Nigeria combined since independence. He set the pace and others followed and yet he never became President. When you look at the clueless drunken people we have had in that office you tend to believe that a people get the government they deserve.

A well groomed omoluabi undergraduate has more brains in his little finger.........

the man was a brain box noni