By Femi Aribisala
Out of the three major ethnic groups in
Gad, Jacob’s seventh son, is said to have had three sons who settled in South-eastern
Igbo genius Even the bitterest adversaries of the Igbo cannot but admit that, as a people, they are very resourceful and ingenious. Indeed, this has often been the cause of their envy and dislike by others. However, more enlightened non-Igbo Nigerians see this as a cause for celebration.
While today, the centre-point of Nigeria ’s manufacturing is
situated in the Lagos/Ogun axis, there is no doubt that the real locomotive of Nigeria ’s indigenous
industrialization lies farther afield in Aba and in the mushrooming
cottage-industries of the Igbo heartland. In one of the paradoxes of Nigerian
history, the terrible civil war provoked homespun industrialization in the
South-East.