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.
“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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