Ekwueme, spoke at the traders’ summit and award ceremony organized by Anambra Consensus Project, ACP, to honour outstanding traders in all the 57 major markets in Anambra State. The ceremony took place at Amaokpala in Orumba North local government area of the state.
He recalled that Igbo were strongly united before and immediately after Nigerian Independence and wondered what went wrong over the years, considering what is currently happening in the Igbo –speaking states of the country.
He said: “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.
“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.”
While the former vice president appreciated the efforts of Igbo traders engaged in import business, he advised them to pay more attention to areas that would enhance export, arguing that it was by so doing that they would be in a position to withstand the uncertainties in the foreign exchange trade.
President of Anambra Consensus Project, Dr. Emeka Eze explained that the organization was committed to promoting Igbo ideology, as well as oneness of the Igbo and a unified direction of Igbo growth and development.
He explained that the 57 best practicing traders of the year would enjoy some privileges, adding that ACP would register the certificates awarded to the traders with some embassies to enhance their visa opportunities whenever the need arose.
He said that the recognition of the outstanding traders would be annual event, which would in future, be extended to the markets in Aba, Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt.
Secretary to the Anambra State Government, SSG, Professor Solo Chukwulobelu, who represented Governor Willie Obiano at the ceremony, said the state government would adopt the same template in rewarding outstanding civil servants in the state.
He also said that government would meet with the leadership of the traders to work out ways of partnering with them to boost trade and commerce in the state.
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Stupid idea! So God created human beings one after the other?
ReplyDeleteYour generation stupid! Akwiya!
DeleteAbeg ask him o, biko i am Igbo and i was not created after any body. Stupid talk indeed.
DeleteHow I wish we could reiterate our footsteps to better our present status,igbo 4 life.
ReplyDeleteDid Bible say that according to the headline?
ReplyDeleteHow can there be trust when the so called Igbo political class and leaders are selling 5he interest of Ndigbo for a plate of porridge.
ReplyDeleteOLD AGE!
ReplyDeleteThis Ekweme of a man is tipsy.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with d fact that the early leadership of this country was given to senseless people. The most confusing set of Nigerians are the igbos. No hausa or yoruba leaders will make such claims. I respect his old age but its unfortunate to hear such from him, its a shame. Noel
ReplyDeleteNoel, swallow your tongue along with your words. If confusion did not birth you, you will not open your stinking mouth to utter such rubbish. Compound fool.
DeleteMadness
ReplyDeleteTake the message and forget about the source. No shallow minded bigots of any kind.
ReplyDeleteThis old man is talking rubbish. This Biafraud people are something else. How could you say Igbo were created after white man? This yanmiri people that don't know their roots. They are animals, drug barons, fake producers of all products etc. This man is out of his sence. You are all fraudlent elements
ReplyDeleteYou are an IDIOT.When you go home pour all that on your mother for giving birth to you.
DeleteWhy arguing with that fact have you not read in your holy bible that you the Ishmaelights where settled with just a bottle of water but we that is of Isaac lineage with wells of water so do not be angry with the igbos it's the LORD'S doing
DeleteWhy arguing with that fact have you not read in your holy bible that you the Ishmaelights where settled with just a bottle of water but we that is of Isaac lineage with wells of water so do not be angry with the igbos it's the LORD'S doing
DeleteThis old man is talking rubbish. This Biafraud people are something else. How could you say Igbo were created after white man? This yanmiri people that don't know their roots. They are animals, drug barons, fake producers of all products etc. This man is out of his sence. You are all fraudlent elements
ReplyDeleteTo the writer..., and what has that got to do with the situation of the country? If people that have what to say, they should just shot up rather than create segregation among tribes... Nigeria is one God created everyone the same! So no tribe should take any glory. This write up is absolutely despicable and a catastrophe of cosmic proportion! Go and get a life!
ReplyDelete.....that is why you people are being executed everywhere in world due to fraudulent drug baroons, 419, Arm robbery, kidnapping, pickpockets, prostitute etc.and you people want to rule this country. No God forbid.
ReplyDeleteIGBO'S ........ low self esteem. Enough said.
ReplyDeleteTbh, this is believe of an average igbo man. They are so full of themselves. Assuming always to be wiser than the rest. Proud and loud. This is the cause of disunity even among themselves and the reason other tribes don't connect with them. So many few exception.....
ReplyDeleteWhy do your you people's blood boil so much once you hear Igbo? Hmph, jealousy is a mental illness o and it kills rapidly. Abeg prepare your funeral cos its coming soon
DeleteWhy do Igbo figures always sow divisions when they are nearing their graves? Achebe did same in his "There was a country." If Igbo people had been ubiquitous in northern Nigeria, selling whatever to indolent northerners, it is because there was mutual trust among Nigerians back in the days. If that is no longer the case, the Igbo man should ask why others now prefer to indigenize commerce and trade among themselves. As for the origin of Igbo, I think they fantasize a lot with dreams of being unique in Nigeria. This owes much to the deeply divisive caste system among them, which drives them to always want to extend it beyond their fiefs. The fortunate "freeborn" thirst for unattainable pristine identity wherever they are.
ReplyDeleteIdiot! Did you read this article at all? He said "Igbo people were so industrious that Northerners were saying that after the white man, the next most important person created by God was Igbo."
DeleteSo why are you killing yourself. MUMU like Buhari.
Oops! I did not take note of our Ph.D Computer Science El Matosky, a genetic error in the midst of the living.
ReplyDeletedat statement is not fact o, but a metaphor to express and reiterate his point.
ReplyDelete