The Igbo as a Blessing to Nigeria
On the 15th of August 1945, the axis nations
fighting in the Pacific theater defeated imperial
Japan and two weeks later, Japan formally
surrendered to allied forces led by the U.S. General,
Douglas McArthur, who formally accepted the
signed articles of surrender.
On the 15th of August 1945, the axis nations
fighting in the Pacific theater defeated imperial
Japan and two weeks later, Japan formally
surrendered to allied forces led by the U.S. General,
Douglas McArthur, who formally accepted the
signed articles of surrender.
But though the U.S. defeated Japan, they never
decimated Japan's great technological and
industrial complex. They were visionary enough to
distinguish these from Japan's military industrial
complex, which they scrapped.
Realizing that Japan was decades ahead of the
West in many technologies, the allied powers, led
by the US, allowed those industries to remain as a
going concern and took the unique step of enacting
legislation and policies to enable them flourish.
What they did in Japan, they also did in Europe. In
Europe, the US, acting unilaterally, even went a step
further by introducing the Marshall Plan through
which America sent financial and other types of aid
to help Europe (and especially Germany) recover
from the ravages of the Second World War.
The point of the allied and American actions in
Japan and Europe is that technological
advancement belongs to the human race and should
not be allowed to suffer because of a quarrel or war
amongst humans.
This lesson was thoroughly established in 642 AD
when the Library of Alexandria was burnt to the
ground during the Muslim conquest of Egypt.
It has been argued that that act set the world
several centuries back in technological
advancement and has become something to watch
out for during the prosecution of a war.
A war is a quarrel between or amongst people that
is settled by means of violence. It is not a quarrel
between or amongst technology, so civilized
nations have pursued the policy of fighting wars
while preserving technology.
Gone should be the days of the scorched earth
policy which is why despite the bestiality of the
apartheid regime, President Nelson Mandela did not
do a Mugabe, but rather left intact White owned
farms, industry and universities and only insisted
that they be opened to Blacks and other races.
This brings me to Nigeria. I would like to state a
fact that will be argued against, but still a fact that
even those who would argue against it know to be
true.
The Igbo (or Ibo) ethnic nationality of Nigeria are
the most technologically advanced Black race on
planet earth, bar none!
This is a fact. A fact that was proven to be true for
30 months while they were landlocked in their
constantly shrinking enclave known as Biafra.
Cut off from the rest of the world, the ingenuity of
the Igbo came to the fore during the civil war as
they constructed the Uli airstrip and when that
airstrip was bombed, they repaired it in record time
and under the most trying circumstances. They
would go on to repair Uli not once and not twice.
The Igbos refined petrol from a variety of non fossil
fuels, including from but not limited to palm
products (from which they also produced diesel)
and manufactured surface to air missiles which they
also adapted to surface to surface missiles (the
Ogbunigwe).
They converted commercial planes to fighter jets
and weaponized them. That was no mean feat in
1967.
In fact, when in 2012, the Nigerian Army rolled out
the igirigi and promoted it as the first indigenous
armored personnel carrier, they were wrong. I am
not a Biafran. I am proudly Nigerian. And beyond
that, I am a proud dark skinned Black African yet I
make bold to say that the igirigi is not the first
indigenous APC.
In fact, the first indigenous armored personnel
carrier in Black Africa is the Red Devil, built by the
Igbos during the Nigerian Civil War.
The Nigerian Civil War ended in January 1970 and
the Nigerian Army unveiled the igirigi in July of
2012. If they had converted the Red Devil to their
own use, they would probably be talking about a
greater feat in the year 2012.
My question is what happened in the intervening 42
years between 1970 and 2012? Why didn't the
Nigerian Army integrate the military industrial
complex of Biafra into its Defence Industry
Corporation of Nigeria, DICON?
Why did we have to reinvent the wheel at great cost
in terms of time and money?
The Nigerian Civil War ended on a note of 'no victor
no vanquished'. That was a watershed moment
inspired by the Christlike mind of General Yakubu
Gowon. That gesture is to be applauded.
But why did we as a nation not go the whole hog
and take advantage of Biafra's technological
advances and integrate her scientists into our
Research and Development sector much like the US
did with German and Japanese scientists?
That is where we failed as a nation.
I remember growing up as a child and how other
Nigerians scoffed at 'Igbo made' electronic
products. There was hardly anything including
electronics, pharmaceuticals, spirits and wines that
the Igbos could not counterfeit.
And rather than our leaders seeing the potential in
those products, we all scoffed at them. Igbo made
products were a pariah.
Did it ever occur to any of our leaders that if
government had supported these technological
advancement, Nigeria could have become an
industrialized nation today and Igbo made products
would have been exported abroad as made in
Nigeria products?
It would surprise many that a number of the
greatest technological advancement and products
that came out of America after the Second World
War were the work of German or Japanese
scientists!
In an operation code named Operation Paperclip,
1500 German scientists, engineers and technicians
were airlifted to the United States and given US
permanent US residency and citizenship
immediately after the defeat of Germany in 1945.
The primary aim of Operation Paperclip was to
prevent these skilled men and women from falling
into Soviet Russian hands.
Hans Erich (Eric) Hollmann who was one of the
fathers of radar technology was one of such
scientists airlifted to America.
Kurt Lehovec the pioneer of the integrated circuit
systems in electrical engineering is another. He was
airlifted to America in 1945 where he became a
Professor at the University of Southern California
and passed on his knowledge to America's next
generation of scientists.
The allies had been having issues with the jet
engine and were not able to develop planes like the
German Messerschmitt Me 262. But after the defeat
of Germany, US forces gave safe passage to Rudi
Beichel who went to the US and became an adviser
to the US army on liquid propulsion. Other German
scientists such as Magnus "Mac" Freiherr von Braun
and his brother, Wernher Von Braun helped reverse
engineer German jets which led to the development
of the US American F-86 Sabres, a plane that
helped the US dominate the air during the Korean
War.
More importantly, Wernher Von Braun provided
much of the know how that helped America build
the Apollo spacecraft which allowed America beat
Russia as the first nation to get to the moon.
Methamphetamine was invented by Japanese a
Japanese chemist, Nagai Nagayoshi and the drug
was shared with their German allies and helped
their soldiers stay awake and focus. After the war,
German scientists helped American scientist
synthesize the drug which revolutionized the US
health industry.
Why can't we do the same in Nigeria? Can you
imagine what our technological base would have
been if we as a nation had a policy of patronizing
the so called Igbo made products right from the
end of the war till today? What if we had absorbed
the the Research and Production Organisation of
Biafra (RAP as it was then known) into the Nigerian
Army Corps of Engineers?
By now, we may have been manufacturing jets and
we would not be dependent on foreign nations for
weapons to fight terrorists.
This is why I was so disgusted with the minister of
science and technology, Ogbonnaya Onu for
aspiring, on Nigeria's behalf, to produce pencils by
2018!
I mean this man is the first civilian governor of the
old Abia state which today encompasses both Abia
and Ebonyi states.
Right there, under his own nose, Nigerians of Igbo
extraction, without ANY governmental support, are
manufacturing electronics and heavy machinery
components and Onu is caught up on pencils!
Onu should visit Nnewi if he knows where it is.
Right there he would see a city that does not wait
for government. Nnewi people are so industrious
that after years of waiting endlessly for government
to provide basic amenities, they have built their own
roads, have their own power stations and their own
water works.
Just like Japan, Nnewi has manufacturers of such
things like batteries, pistons, automobiles and other
products. These Nnewi manufacturers have built
schools for the kids of their workers on site, just
like in Japan.
You just need to visit Nnewi or Aba to see what is
going on in Nigeria. These guys are Nigeria's most
guarded secret because even the federal
government is not aware of them.
And the reason why this is so is because these
people are Igbos!
It is time for Nigeria to forgive the Igbos for being
Igbo and accept them as full partners and equal
partners in the Nigerian project and use the entire
strength of the Nigerian federal government to
provide them the support to fulfill their destiny as
the Black African people that are nucleus of the
technological advancement of Africa.
Notice I say Africa, not just Nigeria. I don't say this
lightly. All over West and Central Africa, Nigerians of
Igbo extraction are the backbone of the commercial
and technological sectors.
I can say what I have said above without any
accusation of self or group interest promotion
because I am not Igbo neither am I married to one.
I have said the truth as my conscience sees it
because I am committed to advancement of the
Black Race because as a proud Black man, I know
that no black African tribe is as great as the Black
Race when it is united.
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