By Uche Nworah
Ebonyi state Governor, Engineer Dave Umahi, and his team have done well constructing the new market, which President Muhammadu Buhari reportedly commissioned during his visit to Ebonyi state on Thursday, 5th May, 2022.
It is good that each South – Eastern state is developing at its own pace, and based on the resources available to the various state governments. This was the idea back when Michael Okpara was Premier of Eastern Nigeria, during the First Republic.
If Ebonyi state can build this market, and it is sustainable, it’s good for them and also good for the South East economy. I don’t think that this warrants comparing it with markets in Anambra state, and then concluding that Ebonyi state has left Anambra state and other South -East states behind in infrastructural development.
In economics, there is the concept of comparative advantage. It could be that Ebonyi state, with an Engineer as a Governor at this time has a comparative advantage over, not just Anambra state but other South East states in project management and execution. Perhaps the market and some of the other projects commissioned by President Buhari, could be what the government and the people of Ebonyi state consider as their priorities at this time. Other South-East states will also have their own priorities, which they may have done well in. Development is incremental, and comes in stages. It is guided by planning but dictated by resource availability.
It should however be noted that the hood alone does not make the monk. Markets on their own won’t trade themselves. They require people, traders, investors, importers, exporters and others in the trading value chain to make them become successful. Guess which state possesses that human capital comparative advantage? Anambra state. So it will still take Anambra state exporting its people, traders, businessmen and women to the new market in Ebonyi state to make it thrive.
We have read in the past the plights of some Anambra traders in Ebonyi state, who had complained of unfavourable trading and business conditions, including shop demolitions etc. At the time, the Anambra state government under Governor Willie Obiano had intervened, even setting up a liaison office in Ebonyi state to attend to the issues raised. Hopefully, the issues have been resolved to enable them play a big part in the newly commissioned market.
My viewpoint on Ndi Anambra and their trading and business prowess is evidence – based. Visit Ariaria market, Aba, Cemetery road market, Aba, Ochanja market, Onitsha, Idumota, Lagos, Balogun market, Lagos, ASPANDA, Lagos, LADIPO market, Lagos, Tejuosho market, Lagos, Dei-Dei building materials market, Abuja, Nkwo Nnewi and other markets. You will see that majority of the traders making things happen in those markets are from Anambra state. It’s in the DNA of the Anambra man and woman. It’s a God -given talent. Adiro ama aka.
Ndigbo need each other. No need for comparison. Nke onye ji, ya weta. Onye ji azu, tinye na ofe, onye ji anu tinye, onye ji nnu tinye, onye ji nmanu tinye. That’s how our pot of soup gets cooked. We will be stronger and better through teamwork and maintaining our age-long strong sense of brotherhood. We will do more as a ‘collective’.
Comparisons and the mindset of ‘I better pass my neigbour’, ‘my house and car are bigger than yours’, will keep putting us apart, pit us against one another, and will only stoke embers of distrust among Ndigbo.
While we praise the new Ebonyi market and such others that may be springing up in the South-East, We have to also understand where the world is right now in the 4th industrial revolution. All that concrete we are seeing at the new Ebonyi state market have been compressed long time ago by Amazon.Com and other e-commerce firms into hand-held devices. This is the now and the future.
No one knows where the warehouses of Konga.Com and other e-Commerce firms are. We don’t need to know. All we require are their website addresses. Order anything and it is delivered to you. That’s the new thinking. Bricks and mortars shopping have since yielded to ‘click and shop’. That’s the kind of debate we should be having, not which Governor in the South East is a better cement mixer. We need to raise the consciousness of our people and government to understand global trading and business value chain better.
The point on insecurity being advanced as the reason why Anambra state is losing its traders, businessmen and women to other states should also be interrogated further. Insecurity is not only an Anambra problem, it is also a South East and national problem. Onwero ndi insecurity tolu ute so na be fa.
Nworah wrote via uchenworah@yahoo.com
