Special Reports: 50 Years After The War, Igbos Are Constantly Robbed

By Nnenna Joseph and Chukwunonso Nzekwe

The most prominent stereotype of the Igbo tribe In Nigeria is their alleged love for money and their display of wealth. For a people who lost everything 50 years ago, it is better to think of them as a struggling child of a low-income father, giving his best to rule his world.

After the war, suffering fell on the Igbos, hunger, starvation, lost properties, the trauma of the loss of loved ones, the Igbos had nothing going for them except “hope”. A fierce form of hope, bent but unbroken. A unanimous decision to strive and survive.

“The only authentic identity for the African is the tribe. I am Nigerian because white man created Nigeria and gave me that identity. I am black because the white man constructed black to be different as possible from his white. But I was Igbo before the white man came.”
Chimamanda Adichie

Igbos who owned bank accounts were given 20 pounds each to start all over, at the time the amount meant very little compared to their numerous losses.

The Igbos determined to make the most have since built empires from losses. As portrayed vividly in Chinua Achebe’s novel “Civil Peace,” the book is the situation of the Igbo tribe after the war. The excitement the character felt after the war represents the relief Igbos felt when the war was ended. Jonathan starts to sell drinks to soldiers while his wife sold akara, his children too picked and sold mangoes representing a people trying to rebuild everything they lost. The climax of the novel featured armed robbers invading Jonathan’s residence robbing him of his hard-earned sum of 20 ponds. This is us, this is our story, and the Igbos are constantly robbed off our income daily.

We have a region that controls major trade income of the country, having the biggest and busiest markets generating revenue for the Nigerian government yet Igbos are constantly robbed off dividends of democracy. Laying aside the inability of the government to run inclusive governance incorporating the region in its administrative echelon, we lack basic attention; facilities available to other tribes are denied the region laced with unequal distribution of wealth. Federal roads in the region are death traps, regardless of being blessed with water bodies, the government has turned a blind eye towards the proposal to start an “Inland port” at Niger bridge to make trading easier for the region.

If there is an Inland Port at Onitsha, Importing and exporting to and from south east will be made easier, cost less and generate more funds. The importers within Aba’s Ariaria market and Port Harcourt’s Oil mill market immediately benefit from this hence a good reason for the Nigerian government to refuse or deploy the stunt growth strategy.

The expected port at the Niger will make import less stressful for Onitsha, Nkwo-Nnewi and Ogbete main market importers but because it is a need arising from the southeast region, the so-called 97 vs 5 percent comes to play. The only functional port in Nigeria is those in Lagos state causing undue congestion In the state and Onne that is barely for goods but crude oil. Residents of Apapa wharf will benefit if extra ports are opened and the congestion, they experience grind to a welcomed stop.

“Biafra is a child of circumstance, his existence and survival are always a marvel, sometimes bordering on a miracle. His life is a tribute, his courage is his endurance, his ingenuity is his humanity.”

Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu

In like manner, 50 years down the line and there is only one Niger bridge, the second bridge construction proposal has been moved back and forth for a decade, while its actual construction is at 23% after over five years of the media hype.

Visiting the topic of construction of rail lines and train stations currently inactivated all over the country, the region has been “Intentionally” denied, even a single connecting railway has not been budgeted for, just media charade and political promises.