The Sugar & Ant Developmental Strategy

I have been unable to solve the mystery of sudden group-appearance of the sugar ants when there is an availability of exposed sugar. Take this wonder along with you as a possible module for adoption as we go on this key strategic journey.

In a house or space where there is no visible presence of the striking comradeship of the sugar ant which even for months their conspicuous absence remains constant only to be compromised by a conscious placement of a cube of sugar on the table, exposed to the natural weather of air and its varied temperature. In amazement though the takeoff speed of group appearances may vary for different locations, sizes of space and climate but a mystery announcement will spread; calling out as many bands of sugar ant as possible. Informing them of the opportunity therein and encouraging them to rush, in other to take as much advantage of the said opportunity. By this natural compelling engineering elements of growth and development are triggered, effecting speculation, evaluation, travelling, migration, de-migration, settlement, resettlement and dominance of the sugar/opportunity found area.

Developmental strategic points to take out of the above narration are as follows; opportunity speculation, opportunity evaluation, stamina for travelling, readiness for migrating out of a region, de-migration of people who migrated earlier, settlement, resettlement and area dominance. The building blocks of good, resourceful and people-oriented governance should be rich with a well thought through road map that would achieve the above mentioned and many more. Especially for a region plagued with the misfortune of massive migration out of the region with less and insignificant body movements into the region.

The Igbos are a hardworking and industrious race and like sugar ants they hear the call out echoes from opportunities within the country and across the globe. With an uncommon grace and the courage to venture they leave home to attend to these opportunities where ever their strength can carry them. They Igbos are found in every part of the country, adding value through provision of goods in food, wears, automobile parts, hand work and other ancillary services. Overtime the Igbo man has been caught up in the vicious web of migrating out of her region and contributing in the development of other regions were the find growth opportunities. It is a fact that in some other regions they have conquered swamps and put homes, built markets, estates, shopping malls, schools and many more in exchange. Same module is evident in our indigenous units; as an individual enjoys a routine of uplifting support of diverse sort from a benefactor, he or she in appreciation sometimes joins his benefactor in cleaning his compound or taking up farm jobs for his benefactor. In essence the beneficiary contributes in his or her own way to the continuous good condition of his benefactor as he gets more uplifting support from him.

In all of these, one thing is constant in its obvious reality, they Igbos have left home because of total lack of opportunities in their region. They have migrated out of the silent boundary lines of the Biafran or eastern region to regions and areas that hold enabling opportunities to service their quest for healthy survival. The Igbo man in his adaptation for survival through the grave limitation of lack of opportunities in her region which was further aggravated by the after effect of the civil war has through experience, exposure, travelling, migration matured out of the tribal frame into a national / global frame. No wonder it seems to be only the Igbo man that truly lives out the mantra of “One Nigeria” by their deeds, actions and robust physical presence in all other regions of the country, I stand to be corrected on this claim.

Our collective misfortune is that in our effort towards adapting to new measures of surviving the outcome of the civil war and the gross lack of opportunity in our region, we have left home and home has stayed unattended. Unfortunately, we have dwelled with the second misfortune of lacking leaders in the capacity of governance who understand the plight and complexity of our region. Rather we have suffered more in the hands of those that built empires of themselves from our collective wealth without the closest idea on how to alleviate the burdens of our collective misfortune.

As ndi Igbo, let us not submerge ourselves into further misfortune by rushing into hasty decision on processes that are not well thought through. Let us not take up the drama of blame game, rather let us take full responsibility of our collective negligence and our inability to own the process of electing credible, process driven leaders and government. In the past we have abandoned our collective fate in the hands of time wasters who do not understand the complexity of our circumstances.

We need a process driven road map, to ignite populating the silent boundaries of the Biafran / eastern region with individual of reasonable disposable income. Create new functional industrial towns with facilities and enabling environment that will attract investors and industrialists. We need to develop a rich and sincere partnership with private sector for the promotion of micro, small and medium enterprises. With the right strategy in place the new and emerging generations of ndi Igbo within the eastern region will not be attracted to migrating out of the region because the opportunities they seek out there would have been made available for them in their region. This will further energize migration of people from other region to the silent boundaries of the Biafran or eastern region while also motivating some of our brothers to relocate back home for resettlement. The multiplier effect is that without struggle our brothers who have the capacity to establish businesses or setting up industries would naturally hear the call out echo from opportunity and gather in their numbers to invest back home. Note that businesses strive with financially empowered large population, so we need to stimulate the catalyst of industrializing and populating our region.

One civil war is just enough, let us then embark on the task of strategic development and positioning. Building empowering but compelling blocks for national negotiations while connecting the dots of regional cooperative advantage as a financially and opportunity driven region will be the right way to go.