See How Ibos Are Changing the South-east

While we are all fighting over resource control, our Ibo brothers and sisters are thinking outside the box and rapidly developing the South-east. They don ’t need government for anything, it appears. They build schools, markets, roads and, if you permit them, would provide their security. Who needs government?

Their graduates don’t wait to get a white collar jobs. Unemployment is not a well known concept here. They learn a skill from someone who has learnt it from another person in a beautiful cycle of passing the baton. They have since learnt to look beyond government. I think it has to do with the civil war experience that suddenly made them truly independent spirits.

They didn’t get their beloved Biafra but the resilience, resourcefulness and creativity of that dream lives on. That is the spirit propelling a business giant like Chief Emeka Offor to build roads, schools, markets, malls and generally turn his place into a mini Dubai. He doesn’t need to wait for government patch up a road or fix a leaking roof. He is not interested in the government subvention his state gets.

He doesn’t ask “what has the governor done for you?” Rather, he is fond of asking “what can I do for this community?” And please don’t ask me about the source of his wealth. If that wealth builds more medical centers, recreational facilities, buys computers, builds libraries and pays medical and school fees to the kids in the neighborhood, I say Praise the Lord!

And as I write this, I’m told that it is a kind of competition among Ibo business men as they find ways of building their communities. They build roads to their villages, fix bridges and undertake other community work. No one is waiting for government.

Now, come up here in the North. Life revolves around government, especially the monthly salary which has become a god of sorts. It is a vicious cycle of collecting salary, spending it on debts, and waiting again for the next pay. The big man in the community builds a castle, festoons it with barb-wires, gets a giant generator and hides in his self made bunker.

Everyone else wallows in penury. He would rather buy a jeep with huge tyres than repair the broken road leading to his hamlet. I know big men in and out of government who lobby local government chairmen to grade the road leading to their villages. Some would ensure boreholes are sunk in their compounds. They would ask “what is the governor doing for me?” Instead of asking “what can I give this community?”

We need some Emeka Offors out here. We need someone who would build an “Okada” city out of his village. My point is that some of our big men can play Robin Hood and do some things and not this endless wait for government. Believe me, there is an Emeka Offor in every local government in Nigeria. There is someone who could electrify an entire village without feeling the pinch.

There are folks who could sponsor all the indigent kids of a community without losing a penny. I appeal to such folks to stand up. We can’t just leave everything to government. The way I see it, government is getting overwhelmed and can no longer provide all the jobs; do all the roads and give water. I’m asking some patriots to stand up for their people. 

The Ibos have since caught the vision and are running with it. But, like I said earlier, you visit some communities where our big men come from here in the North and you wonder. I overheard one of them recently berating his local government chairman for not tarring the road to his in-law’s compound.

When the big man left, the chairman pulled me aside and said “Emma, see me, see trouble o! This man is a billionaire and this town looks like a hell hole and he doesn’t even care.  We have no water, no higher institution, no town hall, and no light and yet he wants the little we get here. Can’t he see what other ogas are doing to their communities?” Yes, can’t he?

Emmanuel Bello