By: Uloka Chibuike
Since Governor Soludo made the call for Anambra traders in Lagos to relocate and bring home their businesses to their homeland, I have been struggling to process such a call. Coming from a Professor of economics and a global citizen makes it more difficult.
Assuming that these Anambra traders respond to the call of our political leader and representative, who is considered to be our Governor, the traders would disperse throughout Anambra State. This does not imply that Lagos’ markets will close—never. Other traders from the Southeast and other parts of Nigeria will fill the void left by these traders and carry on with their enterprises because life abhors vacuums.
Prof. Soludo
Consider Chukwuma and Sons Motor Spare Parts, which is well-known in the Lagos motor spare parts market, packing up to return home to Anambra to establish itself due to a disagreement with his landlord. Extend this to all his Anambra co-traders who left home to compete with the business needs of a megacity like Lagos; all will relocate their stores back home merely to serve Professor Charles Soludo, CFR’s ego call. Will such an exit and move shut down the Lagos spare parts market or other businesses controlled by Anambra traders?
This isn’t about the security worry that has dominated this space since the Governor’s rash call, but rather the economic sense that such a call makes for the Governor.
Obviously, the Lagos market will continue to flourish and benefit those who are prepared, simply because Lagos has reached a level that neither envy nor prejudice can demolish. Lagos flourishes in business due to its size and strategic location in the country today. The average Anambra man or woman, like other ethnic groups in Lagos, benefits from the large market and demands that Lagos provides; asking them to relocate home would not shut down Lagos State, which is destined to grow even more; rather, remittances from Lagos to Anambra will suffer because the market does not exit in Anambra State as it does in Lagos.
No one would travel to your hideout in search of you; kindly perish the thought that consumers would come to Anambra to buy from Anambra traders if they needed the commodity. Those who are available will take over their demands while you perish at home.
Those masturbating over the statement and calling for ‘relocation’ clearly do not grasp Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s gaffe. It’s fine to encourage investors to consider your state as a new investment destination for a variety of reasons; anyone would do so; however, capitalizing on the reported spat between some Igbo traders and their host to now ask your brothers and sisters to return home and relocate their businesses so you can collect more taxes even when the market is not available is completely absurd.
I might be wrong; perhaps Charles Soludo, the much-talked-about economic titan, made a different call from my understanding and illustration, which I would ask him to buttress further so ranks like us would understand better. If not, then we voted for a clown as Governor who doesn’t understand change and narratives in the global economy.
Anyone at this age still asking Igbos to return home is simply an enemy within who doesn’t desire progress for our people and homeland. We must purge ourselves of whatever’s left of the 1967 civil war and bury this victimhood mentality so we can tap into the opportunities for which nature has availed us as indigenous people of present-day Nigeria.
I would not fault the call by Dim Odimegwu Ojukwu in the 1960s; a lot has changed since then and lessons have been learned, which Dim confessed to before his transition to the great beyond. The first call was a mistake, and another would be a disaster. We must seek working political solutions to our present-day challenges, if any.
If Charles Soludo had traveled to Lagos State with other Southeast Governors to meet with their counterparts at the Alausa Government House to discuss challenges being faced by Igbo traders in the state, positives would have been garnered and long-term solutions to the differences would have been discussed and implemented, but instead, he left Awka through Umueri Airport only to call a town hall meeting for Anambra traders to boycott Lagos and relocate their businesses home as that would be the only way to resolve the differences.
They’re everywhere, distorting the ‘Aku Luo Unọ’ philosophy, which loosely translates to remittances back home rather than business relocation to hideouts where no one will see them for patronage and consumption.
They were made rich by the markets in Lagos, not the other way around, and you are asking them to relocate back home, Aren’t you silly? I have always held the view that the Igbos, who are sojourners and traditional traders by nature, benefit more from Nigeria’s unity and complexity than any other ethnic group. Our ability to live and do business anywhere gives us unrestricted access to the vast market size of the nation, and anyone urging us to return home is simply a household enemy. Instead of making ridiculous ego calls, our governors should be talking to their counterparts across host states about our protection and equal treatment which is often the issue.
Uloka Chibuike is a trained strategic communicator, and public affairs analyst.
Ulokachuks@yahoo.com
