INTRO: THE TRUTH NOBODY WANTS TO SAY ALOUD.
From the moment Fredrick Lugard forcibly stitched Nigeria together in 1914, one ethnic group has poured its sweat, genius, mobility, enterprise, and blood into keeping this artificial creation alive.
Ndi Igbo.
While others stood still, we moved.
While others debated identity, we built cities.
While others feared the new Nigeria, we invested our future into it.
And yet, after 111 years of nation-building, the Igbo stand as the single group that has given the most to Nigeria and received the least in political reward, infrastructural equity, and national recognition.
This is not sentiment.
This is history.
This is data.
This is truth unfiltered.
THE IGBO EXODUS: THE PEOPLE WHO BUILT NIGERIA’S CITIES
From the earliest days of amalgamation, Igbo men and women surged into every colonial town, Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, Jos, Enugu, Port Harcourt, not as conquerors, but as the human engines of development.
They became:
Nigeria’s first mass clerical workforce
its most educated early missionary teaching population
its most mobile and industrious artisan class
its most aggressive traders and market creators
By the 1940s, anywhere you saw growth, business, literacy, commerce,
you saw Ndi Igbo.
We did not wait for government to give us a place; we created the place.
We did not ask for permits to dream; we executed the dream.
We became the bloodstream that carried life into the veins of every region.
THE NATIONALISTS: IGBO BRAINS THAT FOUGHT FOR A COUNTRY THAT WOULD LATER BETRAY THEM.
When nationalism began to rise, who carried the intellectual fire?
Nnamdi Azikiwe. Alvan Ikoku. Mbonu Ojike. M.I. Okpara. Akanu Ibiam.
These were not just Igbo heroes, they were Nigeria’s founding thinkers.
Zik’s newspaper, West African Pilot, electrified the freedom movement.
Okpara built the Eastern Region into one of the most advanced African economies of the 1960s.
Ikoku laid the foundation of Nigeria’s education system.
The irony?
The very people who built the framework for a united Nigeria were later treated as outsiders in the same nation they nurtured.
THE CIVIL WAR: THE ATTEMPT TO WIPE OUT THE ENGINE OF PROGRESS
Then came 1966–1970.
Pogroms. Massacres. A brutal civil war.
Millions of Easterners slaughtered.
A region burnt to the ground.
And after the war?
They gave Ndi Igbo £20 each.
Twenty pounds, for people whose bank accounts held thousands.
Twenty pounds, to restart life from ashes.
Imagine a people that lost everything, and still rose faster than those who lost nothing.
1970–1990s: IGBO RESURGENCE AND THE REBUILDING OF NIGERIA’S ECONOMY
After the war, the Igbo rebuilt themselves and rebuilt Nigeria simultaneously.
They repopulated Lagos markets, revived Kano’s commerce, dominated Port Harcourt’s logistics, energized Abuja’s real estate, and restored the broken arteries of national trade.
Key Igbo pioneers built institutions:
Sir Louis Ojukwu – Nigeria’s first billionaire, NSE founding father
Mathias Ugochukwu – industrialist and banking pillar
Pascal Dozie – MTN, Diamond Bank, financial revolution
Innoson Chukwuma – Nigeria’s first indigenous automobile manufacturer
Meanwhile, the extraordinary Igbo Apprenticeship System (Igba boyi) quietly produced more millionaires than any government programme in Nigeria’s history.
Today’s Alaba, Ladipo, Nnewi, Ariaria, and Computer Village economies?
Built on Igbo sweat. Sustained by Igbo genius.
THE PARADOX: WE DEVELOPED EVERYWHERE EXCEPT HOME
This is the tragedy of the Igbo story:
We built Nigeria at the expense of building Igboland.
Our wealth transformed other regions:
Lagos became a mega city fueled by Igbo markets
Kano’s commerce thrived on Igbo distribution networks
Port Harcourt’s economy was revived by Igbo capital
Abuja’s estates are filled with Igbo investment
But our homeland, the crucible of our identity, remains structurally disadvantaged:
The fewest states in Nigeria
The fewest local governments
No seaport
No international airport
Weak federal presence
Roads in perpetual decay
Political marginalisation in federal leadership
How can a people who built nations leave their own home underdeveloped?
Because Nigeria weaponised policy against Igbo self-recovery, and Igbo goodwill became national capital.
THE GREAT IGBO DIASPORA: A NATION SPREAD ACROSS THE WORLD
When Nigeria refused to give the Igbo full space to breathe, they carried their brilliance overseas.
Today, the Igbo are among the most educated African immigrant groups in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Europe.
They are:
professors
doctors
engineers
bankers
tech innovators
entrepreneurs
Their remittances sustain thousands of households across Nigeria and strengthen Nigeria’s foreign reserves.
Wherever they go, they excel.
Wherever they settle, they build.
Wherever they work, they dominate.
Ndi Igbo do not seek permission to thrive.
Thriving is their nature.
THE NATION THAT BENEFITTED THE MOST GIVES THE LEAST BACK
This is the unspoken truth:
Nigeria cannot stand, economically, commercially, academically, culturally, without Ndi Igbo.
Yet:
No Igbo has been allowed to truly lead Nigeria since 1966.
Federal infrastructure consistently bypasses the South-East.
The political system is designed to keep the region structurally minimized.
The narrative of “marginalization” exists because the evidence is overwhelming.
The Igbo gave Nigeria their best, their markets, their intellect, their labour, their nationalism, their resilience,
and Nigeria gave them suspicion, political exclusion, and infrastructural starvation in return.
THE NEW CALL OF HISTORY: AKỤ RỤỌ ỤLỌ, OR PERISH AS A PEOPLE
The era of emotional nationalism is over.
If Ndi Igbo do not reinvest massively into Igboland,
industrial clusters, seaports, rail lines, special economic zones, tech hubs, agro-industries,
we will remain the engine that runs other people’s vehicles while our own sits rusting.
We must learn from the Jews, the Chinese, the Indians:
global success must always translate to homeland development.
The diaspora must connect with the homeland.
Our entrepreneurs must build factories, not just shops.
Our investors must see the East not as sentimental hometowns but as serious economic zones.
Because if the Igbo ever decide to develop Igboland with 50% of the wealth they poured into other regions, the South-East will become West Africa’s next industrial miracle.
ULTIMATELY: A PEOPLE WHO REFUSE TO DIE
From 1914 to 2025, Ndi Igbo have been the oxygen of Nigeria:
They built its cities
Powered its commerce
Led its nationalism
Drove its informal economy
Dominate its diaspora excellence
Kept its economic engine running
We are the only group that Nigeria cannot do without.
We are the only group that has rebuilt itself from zero multiple times.
We are the only group that has turned adversity into economic science.
The question is no longer:
“What has Nigeria done for the Igbo?”
The real question is:
“What will Ndi Igbo now do for themselves?”
The answer begins today.
By Hon. Chima “Oblong”; Nnadi-Oforgu
Duruebube Ihiagwa ófó asato
OBLONG MEDIA UNLIMITED 
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