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A South East Diaspora group, under the umbrella of Igbonine Diaspora, has promised to revitalise all the moribund industries in the region.
President of the group, Prof. (Amb) Marcel Okechukwu Ezenwoye, explained that the mission of the group was to revive moribund industries in the region would be to revive or re-strategise them into more fruitful industrial sites instead of the decayed and dilapidated machineries that dot the sites.
He said, “we equally want to bring agriculture up to speed to be the number one priority in Igboland. In industrialisation, all the old industries should be revived: 33 lager beer and Golden Guinea Brewery in Umuahia, and others in Oko, Anambra State, all of which are moribund today.
“They can be turned into pharmaceutical centres for the production of alternative drugs that are more organic and natural and would not be harmful to our people. We also have to develop how to produce organic fertiliser. We need to research into what is very strong in Igboland, investment opportunities in the region and bring our sons and daughters in different parts of the world to Africa to invest in Igboland. Ndigbo are talented and envied for their social achievements, to God be the glory.”
The group said that it is ready to collaborate with governors of SouthEast in making sure that Igboland is a safe haven for investment by addressing the issues of general insecurity in the region “so that our brothers and sisters in Igboland can live easier, safer and comfortable life.
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“We will also make sure that all Igbo at home and abroad are united with one purpose in confronting the hydra-headed challenges in South East by ensuring that all the problems and challenges we are facing in the region are tackled as a group such that anything that happens to an Igbo man anywhere in Nigeria and abroad: China, Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa, affects all Igbo – a case of an injustice to an Igbo man is an injustice to all Igbo nation.”
Ezenwoye called on South East indigenes to be totally united at this point in time when the existence of Ndigbo and their businesses are being threatened everywhere.
“We need to launder the image of Ndigbo all over the world to make sure it becomes more positive and acceptable to the global community and Nigeria in particular.”
In the spirit of Akuluonulo philosophy, Ezenwoye called on all Igbo business owners home and abroad to start thinking of relocating all their resources back to Igboland, adding that this, if done, would increase the capacity of Ndigbo to contribute to the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the international economy.
“We have to discover our inventors, youths that are producing mobile devices, computers, laptops e.t.c, and encourage them to embark on mass production of the devices so as to make Igboland a hub for educational tourism.
“The universities in Igboland, especially the private ones, should be consistent with qualitative education. We should make them sought after tertiary institutions. I can recall, for example, that anyone who studied in University of Nigeria Nsukka and got his/her degree in those days was different from others who got their degrees from other universities. They were happy to proclaim that they studied in Nsukka.
“We have to bring back those old glories in UNN and also increase the same capacity for other universities we have. Nnamdi Azikiwe University is doing well. We are meeting with clients and candidates who graduated from the university and they are defending and protecting the image of the university,” he stated.
