By: a Reader
One day I was discussing with a fellow Nigerian (beautiful lady) but her heart was dark to the Igbo, her fellow compatriot. She blurted out to me that she hates Igbos.
Shocked, I asked her why, and she said if there are 5 people in a compound selling things, the moment just one Igbo joins, he will take over the trade and (through his natural business excellence) push all the other non Igbo businesses out of business in a few months. Now, this was no ‘chest beating’ Nwa Ada Igbo, but a certified anti-Igboist spilling her guts to me in a moment of bizzare truth.
It was only later that I read Amy Chua’s book on Igbos being market dominant group, together with the Jews that I understood that resentment is one of the crosses the Igbo has to bear for being allergic to failure.
Now, what should this woman and others who feel the same way about Igbos have done? They should have understudied the Igbo to learn one or two tricks of the trade from them. I know another Idoma woman who boasted that she studies the Igbos and stays around them as much as possible to learn secrets to business success from them.
Now, that’s a wise woman, and she must have learned one or two things because to the best of my knowledge, she has been going from level to higher level businesswise. Another wise person is Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State, who sent Ekiti indigenes to come to Ala Igbo to learn how to do business. Of course, some of the business ability is inborn, but these Ekiti students will learn one or two useful things to grow their business.
Ask Malaysia. In the 1960’s they came down to Ala Igbo to buy palm seedlings from Igbos. Today, they are the world’s biggest palm oil producers. That is what happens when you decide to learn from the Igbo, rather than hate them. Look at my favourite Nigerian actress, Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, a Yoruba.
She humbled herself with the Igbos really humble woman with a humble character) and became one of the 2 current Nollywood celebrities and a real diva, a real queen. That is what happens when you decide not to be a hater.
The Igbos are flooding your town? You should be happy because that is a vote of confidence from the best investor you can get as an African town. These investors will not suddenly divest tomorrow, and leave your city to fall economically. But they like to leave for their homeland Ala Igbo every Christmas to count scores against their fellow investors who are developing other parts of thw world ( yes, you can find Igbo markets like Alaba in places like South Africa, ask the BBC.
So, it’s a win win for your economy if marginalization and unfair taxes can be dropped. If you tax the Igbo fairly, you can still make enough money to develop your territory while he has more profit to develop your economy. He will not repatriate all the profit to Ala Igbo, (even though he should do more of that). After all, Shell and Chevron repatriate a large bulk of their income to their homeland.
