By SUNNY IGBOANUGO
You’ll always hear some people say that Ndigbo are developing everywhere but their land. I always laugh whenever I hear it.
The impression is that Igbo land is a desolate area devoid of life and development. My recommendation to such people who say this especially to my brothers from other parts of the country is to take a trip to Ala Igbo.
Sometimes I challenge them, let’s travel to my state, Anambra and my village and then your state and village and compare, which is more developed.
My conclusion is that apart from Lagos, former capital of Nigeria and Abuja, the current one, no other place is as developed as Igbo land in Nigeria, particularly outside the state capitals.
I once told one loudmouth who tried to get into an argument sometime ago that in the whole of Ala Igbo, you might not count up to 100 mud houses – there’s none in my village, which is one of the remotest in my state. I’m talking about the entire five states. This is unlike other states, where they dot everywhere even along major roads.
Most of the Igbo villages boast of exotic hotels that could host high calibre guests comparable with what you see in towns. Yet in some state capitals where the people making this completely derogatory and uniformed comments come from, you could hardly find a good hotel to sleep. I know so, because I have travelled far and wide and visited virtually all the state capitals in Nigeria and their villages to boot.
Igbo villages are so developed that individuals are now tarring roads to their private homes. That is the new competition among the well-to-do. Nowhere else is this happening!
Example is the picture above. It’s a road being constructed by a single individual. Place is Adazi Ani, a community in the same Anambra.
That’s the next stage of the self-help paradigm of the Igbo developmental structure. Soon every earth road would not only be tarred but connected to each other in Igboland.
That’s the spirit that has kept the people going. That’s the spirit Nigeria needs. So, when next you tell an Igbo man to go develop his, first think of your own home. Better still, travel and see!
•Source: Facebook
