Igbos are finally set to transform the capital of the old Eastern region to a tourist and commercial destination better than Dubai.
The Igbo race has been described as one of the most ingenious human beings anywhere in the world.
In commerce, they command the industry way beyond any race, local or international.
People from the East of the Niger are known to be unrepentant migrants who travel far beyond their places of origin unhindered.
Anywhere they find themselves, no matter how hostile or accommodation, they make it home, set up industries, empower the indigenes and in some cases take on spouses.
The Igbo man is unassuming, preferring to remain alarmingly modest while allowing their alluring wives and children spend and flaunt their wealth if those chose to.
Notwithstanding their wealth, Igbo are hardly tempted to take on more than one wife knowing the distractions that come with domestic squabbles among women married to one husband. The traditional rulers are not left out. It is almost always one-man-one-wife.
Uche Elendu and the Typical Igbo Dad
When their affluent sons decided to take their wealth home to invest, it was indeed cheering news for traditional rulers.
The Balogun business men according to this (expectedly) unnamed Igbo business mogul “have decided to come down to the East and invest in Akulunor,” a sprawling estate countless miles wide.
According to him, Akulunor “means the wealth is home.”
“We have been building and developing other places in Nigeria and even in diaspora, but this time around, we decided to come down home and bring our wealth.
“This is one of the reasons why we are here to inspect the ongoing work.
“The people gathered here are traders, investors, professionals, captains of industries all over Lagos at the moment.
“We are equally extending the hand of fellowship to those in diaspora that will equally join us
“As you can see, this project is so massive.
“We want to reproduce what is happening in other nations in Igboland. We are in Enugu, at the moment, this project is in Enugu.
“We were here with the governor yesterday when we did a brief ceremony about this project.
“You can see that this a milestone. We pray God almighty to grant us the strength to do this job because we cannot do it without him.
“That is the major reason we are here. We want to transform this place to into a mega hub.
“We have so many facilities here: warehousing, we’re building clusters of shops and malls, there are haulages, holding bays; anything you can talk about. We have bonded terminals, and so on and so forth.
“We want to fashion this place to be bigger even than Dubai and other Asian countries that are doing better in business.”
Back home and elsewhere in Nigeria, the Igbos have developed Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano, Kaduna many major cities way beyond the owners of those areas.
Sadly, in spite of the humongous businesses, sprawling estates and the wealth they command and invest elsewhere, the Igboland is largely left underdeveloped and in some cases desolate.
The Igbos have been victims of genocide in many parts of the country, yet they only return to those same places to rebuild their damaged infrastructure, rebuild their businesses and remarry the indigenes… all without reprisal attacks.
Last month, a damning threat was posted online, warning them to leave the Yoruba land.
Gladly, the South West Governors who are exposed enough to understand the advantages of communal collaboration, issued a statement distancing themselves from the threats.
Solidarity Visit by South West Governors on Wanton Destruction of Lagos Infrastructures – Report
Notwithstanding, the subject of imminent attack remained stoic in silence, preferring to go about their legitimate businesses.
It is assumed that the governors, one of whom is married to an Igbo lady while others have Igbo children or families-in-law preferred to maintain the cordial communal relationship they always had.
The governors also certainly did an evaluation of the kind of development that the Igbos have brought to their states even while living in peace.
For the same reasons, Pastor Tunde Bakare as well as those who have interacted closely with the Igbos does not believe that anyone should pitch any group against the other:
Elsewhere, The western world have evaluated the ingenuity of the average Igbo man but can do nothing about it for curious diplomatic reasons.
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Igbos Set to Transform Enugu to a Better than Dubai