A message to Igbo People

The Igbo s are one of the major tribes in Nigeria. The Igbo s are also one of the most hardworking tribes in the whole of Africa. There is a popular saying that if you visit any country in this world and you don't find an Igbo person then you know that it is either the people of that land don't allow Foreigners or the Country itself is not profitable.

Every Nigerian would agree with me on the fact that Igbo s are very good in business and that is why businesses in all part of Nigeria is mostly owned and controlled by the Igbo s.
The reason why most Businesses are owned and controlled by the Igbo s is explained below.

The Igbo s started Entrepreneurship before it became widely known. An Igbo Man would open a store where he sells Television and then go to his village to bring a relative to come work for him. After seven years or so, he settles the relative with a huge sum of money and and the relative in turn opens his own store and go bring another relative and the circle continues. This is why most businesses are owned by the Igbo s.

There is an issue that really bothers me about the Igbo s and that is the reason why I wrote this article.
Before I continue, I would like to say that I am also from the Igbo tribe and this is just me sharing my mind. I apologize if this article might offend some people  but this is something that needs to be addressed and I think it is also one way the Igbo tribe could move forward.

We Igbo s think that we are very smart and cannot be deceived by ndi ofe mmanu(Yoruba s) and ndi na akpo isi na ala( Hausa s). The truth of the matter is that we are wrong. Within ourselves, we might think we are the smartest but the truth is that we are not that smart at all and I am going to prove it.

An average Igbo man defines smartness as outwitting others and smartness can only be achieved by deception. This is what we have believed for a while now and this has made us believed that our tribe is higher and better than the other two tribes.

If Nigeria was a food chain, Igbo s would be at the bottom of the chain. The reason i said so is this. If our tribe is higher as we claimed, why did we have to leave Igbo land and migrate to bigger cities in Nigeria such as Lagos, Abuja and the others?

Why did we not stay in our villages and develop them so that they can become mega cities and then people would migrate from all parts of Nigeria to our mega cities since we are higher and better?

Some people might argue that if not for the Igbo s who migrated, cities like Lagos and the rest would not be developed as they are. There is some sense in that but since we are higher and better, why did we have to leave igboland in the first place?

The answer to that question is this, we believed that they were better opportunities outside Igbo land and when we came and saw the opportunities, we had no other option than to stay.

In terms of development, it would be totally absurd and stupid if your business or your source of income is in Lagos and you don't have a house whether rented or owned  in Lagos  but prefer commuting  everyday from Onitsha to Lagos. It would be tedious and very stressful for the person involved.

Development is a necessity because the reason for development is to make things easier for you and your immediate family. Even our Colonial masters had to built railways, hospitals e.t.c .They never built for us, the reason why they built those stuff was to make life easier for themselves and this in turn brought development.

Now back to my topic,  the reasons why the Igbo s are at the bottom of the food chain are

👉 EDUCATION
When education came to Nigeria, the Igbo s were quite sceptical about education and  did not  start going to school as immediately as  their counterparts in the West and North did. In some families in Igbo land as of today, some families still don't see the value of education in a child's life and  don't want to train their Children in schools and the reason is because they see no value in it.
Some see it as a waste of money and time and that the highest they can train their Children to is to their secondary education level and after that, the Child can go learn a trade, or go serve a master in the city and after that, they become bosses of their own.
Learning a trade is good because you acquire skills that would be useful to you for the rest of your life. Serving a master is good because you become self employed.
What is the essence of all of this if you become a successful businessman tomorrow and you can't even write your own name? Or you learn a trade and you can't orally convince people that you know what you are doing?

I was speaking with a Friend from the Western part of Nigerian and he told me that in his state, If you don't have a Professor in your Family, People won't accord you with much respect. In Igbo land, the highest most peopel go for is Msc and Bsc. Most don't even use their degrees to work . it is either they get married and dump their degrees  or they start up a petty business of buying and selling.
There are those that do their PHD s as well but compared to the West and North, they are just few.

Now imagine a Family where everyone is a professor working at Universities all over the world, becoming political leaders, solution providers to the human race and all and another where everyone is a business man. In which of the two families do you think would have a better chance of life opportunities, personal development and world domination?

👉JEALOUSY AND HATRED OF BROTHERS
To the Nigerians reading this article, most of you know about Nollywood and you know that most story lines in Nollywood is built on the Igbo tradition. Most of the story lines always shows some guy leaving his village and going to the city to have a better life.
After becoming someone successful in the city, he comes back to the village to let his people know that he is now successful and he also starts helping his people.
Somewhere along the line, there would be a wicked brother or relative or even a member of his village that would not be happy that he is wealthy and this person will secretly start planning his downfall.
This person can go to any length to make sure that the successful guy becomes a pauper and come back to stay in the village.
The example above is a classical example of most Igbo story lines.

The reality is that most of those storylines is what truly happens in Igbo land. Nobody wants the other to be greater than him irrespective of the fact that the person might be more educated than him, have more technical and commercial awareness, have background support and all.  That is why they secretly plan the downfall of one another.

If someone in a community or family makes it in life, are the other people in the community and family not supposed to be happy with that person?
Of course they should because as long as one person is successful, he is going to help develop the community, and also support people financially and this in turn will lessen the number of people that live in abject poverty. This same person will also go pick one or two person s from the village and also train or teach them on how to be successful. By doing this, more families will become wealthy in no time and also pick others that are poor and help them the same way they have been helped.

But then most people don't see it that way. What baffles me is this, you are very poor, you don't have food to eat, your children don't go to school and then God blesses a relative and he comes to the village to give you money. Instead of you using that money to get food to eat or even train your children  in school, you prefer using that money to prepare charms that would lead to your relative's downfall. That to me is sheer wickedness, hatred of one another and this is another reason why we are at the bottom of the food chain.

I will be stopping here so that it does not become too long. The article will be concluded in the next part.

Thank you very much
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