Pascal Oparada
The widely-held opinion that the Igbo are money-conscious was recently emphasised by Asari Dokubo, a former militant and leader of the Niger Delta Volunteer Force (NDVF), who alleged that in a viral video that the Igbo are ‘criminally-minded.’
Dokubo, who has been engaged in verbal warfare with Nnamdi Kanu alleged in another response to the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, that among all the tribes in Nigeria, the Igbo are the most money-conscious and criminally-inclined.
Dokubo’s statement, apart from stoking the embers of ethnic hatred, incensed many Igbo leaders, who did not only see his allegation as an insult to the Igbo, but decided to use the social media to educate Dokubo – and other Nigerians – on how the Igbo make their money and why they appear to be money-conscious.
Sunny Igboanugo, publisher of Whirlwind Newspaper, on his Facebook page told Dokubo that he knows little about the Igbo and why they appear to love money.
Igboanugo said that, unlike other people from other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria, the Igbo are the most home-centric, meaning they think of their home first before anything.
”I have just listened to Asari Dokubo in a video clip that is currently trending on the social media. It was his response to a verbal attack by Nnamdi Kanu, in their engagement over the issue that seems to emanate from a disagreement around the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
”I’m actually not interested in that dispute. The two of them know where the water mysteriously entered through the pipe of the vegetable. My concern is the comment of the former Niger Delta Volunteer Force (NDVF), boss regarding Ndigbo. He had no equivocation in describing the entire Igbo as criminals. He didn’t mince words about it. Why are the Igbo so criminally-minded? That was the question. He went ahead to stress that Igbo people put wealth above morality, reason they are all involved in selling body parts to make money,” Igboanugo said.
According to Igboanugo, the Igbo are dexterious in matters of money-making and savings.
He said the Igbo have a long history of billionares spread across the length and breadth of the Nigeria.
He cited the case of Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu, the father of late Chukwemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the Biafran warlord, who gifted his Rolls Royce to Nigeria in 1963 to use for the itinerary of Queen Elizabeth when she visited the country.
The former politics editor of Daily Independent, said at no time was it recorded that the Ijaw, Dokubo’s tribe, was ever richer than the Igbo.
He said the money-making ability of the Igbo is spiritual as enunciated recently by the Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Enitan Oguwusi in a YouTube video.
”Now, let me tell you how the Igbo make their money. First, it is spiritual, ordained and established by God that Ndigbo would always be richer than their neighbours. The mystery behind it was well explained quite recently by the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II. The details are there on the YouTube. Asari and his likes might wish to check it out.
But the one that is practical is what is evident before everyone’s eyes. Let me start from the Gala seller in the street of Oshodi. An Igbo of 14 and his counterpart from, say, Asari’s home enter the street to sell the snack. They’ll probably make N1,000 a day profit. What happens? That young Igbo boy who probably carries the image of his parents at home as a badge and has a vision of one young boy, who has just erected the latest design of building in his village, does the needful. Instead of blowing the entire N1,000, believing that another would come tomorrow, saves N800. He goes to a restaurant and pointedly instructs the food seller that he doesn’t want meat in his food. He gets food of N100 without meat. He drinks the water provides by the restaurant instead of buying mineral. He doesn’t drink mineral unless someone offers him. On the other hand, his counterpart, whose father probably lives apart from the mother and who probably came into the street to hustle from a friend’s house where they share ideas of how selling Gala would never take them anywhere, blows his entire N1,000.
”By the time they get into the street the next day, the Igbo boy has N800 tucked into his inner pocket, which their clothes always come with, while the other boy has nothing. This he does for six months. Now calculate N800 daily for six months and see what it gives you. By this time, while his counterpart is still living in his phantom dreams, he has already garnered enough capital to buy direct from his brother and no longer supply and pay later. By that, he cuts off the aspect of high commission, makes more profit and gets bigger supplies,” he wrote.
Another way the Igbo make money, Igboanugo said, is through bulk sales where they think of making marginal profits off many products rather than huge profits on a particular item.
”At Onitsha market, traders sell their goods with just N50 gain and by the time the multiplication is done on thousands of goods sold, he goes home with a profit scores higher than the man that sold in hundreds because he insists on making N150,” he said.
Igboanugo said while there are few bad elements in Igboland, they do not represent the average Igbo person who makes money legitimately.
“Yes, there are Igbo that are drug barons, ritual killers, internet fraudsters, kidnappers and armed robbers. But so do we have in Asari’s people and indeed amongst other tribes. The first people to be executed at Bar Beach, were not Igbos. It even took so many years before the first Igbo man was executed for armed robbery.
“That it is even someone like Asari that would be casting others with the paintbrush of crime, is not only surprising, it is ironic! Amazingly so,” he said.
