After the white man, the next most important person made by God was Igbo—Ekwueme quotes northerners
Dr.
Alex Ekwueme, the SECOND Republic vice president of Nigeria, has explained the
need for Igbos to trust each other as they did in the past, affirming that that
is the only way Igbo land would move forward in the Nigeria project.
Dr. Ekwueme, who said this Sunday at the traders’ summit and award ceremony organized by Anambra Consensus Project, ACP, at Amaokpala in Orumba Norht local government area of the state; to honour outstanding traders in all the 57 major markets in Anambra State, noted that he recalled that Igbo were strongly united before and immediately after Nigerian Independence wondering what went wrong over the years based on what is currently happening in the Igbo –speaking states of the country.
Dr. Ekwueme, who said this Sunday at the traders’ summit and award ceremony organized by Anambra Consensus Project, ACP, at Amaokpala in Orumba Norht local government area of the state; to honour outstanding traders in all the 57 major markets in Anambra State, noted that he recalled that Igbo were strongly united before and immediately after Nigerian Independence wondering what went wrong over the years based on what is currently happening in the Igbo –speaking states of the country.
“When I returned to Nigeria after my studies
abroad, I worked for the then ESSO West Africa Limited and the job took me to
many cities in the Northern part of the country. I found out that there was no
place you would go and won’t find an Igbo man and they all cooperated well” If
you wanted to buy APC medicine in any city in the North, whether it was Kano,
Maiduguri, Kaduna, Bauchi, Bida, Minna, anywhere, it was an Igbo person that
would sell it to you. Igbo people were so industrious that Northerners were
saying that after the white man, the next most important person created by God
was Igbo”.
He
continued:
“When Igbo was Igbo, there was so much unity,
such that once Igbo leaders met and took a decision, every Igbo person would
abide by it. The trust among Igbo was responsible for the reason apprenticeship
became popular with the result that parents would allow their children to stay with
an established Igbo man to learn a trade for periods ranging from five to 10
years after which the apprentice would then be settled to start his own
business.
“Even after the settlement, the newly settled
young trader would be getting goods on credit from his former master and return
the money after sale because of the trust that existed. But lack of trust has
diminished that age long cooperation between the master and his former
apprentice, which is very worrisome. “The main problem of the Igbo today is
lack of trust. If we can rebuild the trust among ourselves, our people will be
better for it.”
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