Food threat from the North – A direct challenge to land grabbers in the East

At the end of the First World War, the Allied nations led by Britain were engrossed with the effort to find the most painful way to punish Germany for their unthoughtful actions that led to the war. They were so embittered that they sort a punishment that will not only pauperize the German nation but also render the citizens subservient. Propelled by such inhuman resolve to extract a pound of fresh, they decided at the Versailles conference that the production and processing of iron and steel (the business in vogue at the time) will be done by Germany while they only enjoy the proceeds. They hurriedly established the treaty and happily went home as conquerors only to be rebuked by their sound apolitical thinkers. The British Social thinkers told the politicians that if they go along with that treaty as it was, over time, Germans will become experts in iron manufacturing and processing that they will have to depend on Germany for ever. They explained that once the Germans established such expertise and the resultant monopoly, the gains the Allied nations may enjoy in the short term will thin out over time and Germany will not only become rich but will also be very powerful militarily. Because the British politicians at the time were not as ignorant as the Nigeria politicians, they quickly reconvened at Versailles to amend the treaty. In the final version they only placed a heavy financial punishment on Germany. The financial burden was so great that instead of preventing another war, it provoked the Germans into the Second World War. We all know this aspect of the European history.

If the Easterners are wise, the food embargo touted by the North will propel them to invest heavily on agriculture in such a manner that by the time the North shall realize their mistakes, they will be depending on the East for food supply. This is possible because if the East can produce foods at an efficient and cheaper rate, the North will have no other option than to pack their farm implements.
Having said this, I am fully aware that the greedy selfish ignorant leaders in the East will never recognize the opportunity not to talk about exploiting it.

Another factor that will make mass food production impossible in the East is the difficulty in accessing agricultural lands. The greedy Igbo business leaders who do not pay any attention to planning are almost everywhere now in Igboland armed with monumental support from THE LORDS OF THE MANOR who call themselves governors. Every available open space in Igboland now is mapped and owned by these people who are deceived by their success in massive real estate investment in Lagos and Abuja. How do you think that you can can build housing estates, shopping complexes, motor parks and markets in every town in Igboland? Who will occupy them?

It is obvious that they pay no attention to population growth. We don’t know if our population is growing or shrinking. We usually add a certain percentage as we wish to our population figures each year and that’s it. The large acres of land on which they built OBA INTERNATIONAL MARKET still lie waste together with costly structures erected there. Such unoccupied housing and market project are visible in many villages in Igboland. The unoccupied market at Oba was constructed when I was a toddler. So imagine the amount of return on investment the land would have attracted if it was given to a fruits and vegetables farmer for the over 30 years of its occupation. Housing expansion and associated infrastructure is never done with total disregard to population growth and population distribution. Such waste of farmland to wishful thinking about development are visible in all nooks and crannies of Igboland. People who are deceived into investing in what they call HOUSING ESTATES in our villages shall soon realize their mistakes. A lot of factors which are not in their favor shall expose their vulnerability.

If such open lands were made available to farmers at reasonable rates, not only that many of our people will be encouraged into agriculture, there will be more food available to us. If oranges were planted in the place of the utopia developed as OBA INTERNATIONAL MARKET, it would have been better. Many of us may have noticed that in Anambra, for example, it is very difficult to find the juicy sweet watery oranges for which we were known. The oranges you find in Anambra now is the waterless oranges they buy from Benue.

My point is that if we fail to think as a people and do the right thing and on time, the domination by the North and other people will continue and even get worse.

My warning is that Real Estate is not lucrative but clever people can make fortune out of it only by creating artificial scarcity and demand. Some of the people they deceived into investing in their business regretted it immediately afterwards.

Let us think and act clearly to preserve our position which is almost mortgaged in Nigeria.
A stitch in time saves nine.

Chukwuma Uche
(An analytical thinker)

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