Ndigbo: Caught Betwixt And Between In Nigeria (1)

 

By Tiko Okoye 

In a few weeks – July 6, to be more precise – it would be exactly 55 years since then-Nigerian military Head of State and Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of the Armed Forces of Nigeria and Chairman of the Supreme Military Council (SMC), then-Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon, declared war on the short-lived Republic of Biafra. 

The United States State Department recently declassified top-secret diplomatic dispatches. They are spread over 21,000 pages and provide previously unknown information about the Nigeria/Biafra civil war. This columnist would be making use of copious excerpts from the declassified dossier to more objectively link the dots embedded in the potpourri of information in a four-part series. 

There’s Just No Killing The Igbo Beetle!

 By Tiko Okoye

Several years back, the Lagos-based Volkswagen vehicle assembly outfit noticed with considerable apprehension that its gigantic in men and machinery as well as dominant leadership position in the low-end car market in Nigeria were being significantly imperilled by the burgeoning demand for the Kaduna-based Peugeot automotive assembly plant’s Peugeot 504 saloon car. 

*Igwe Achebe, Obi of Onitsha 

Volkswagen didn’t push back with a price cut as many had expected given that the Beetle’s target market is highly price-sensitive. The car assembler knew only too well the possible traps attendant with such a pricing-cutting strategy. While a lower price may buy market share, for instance, it hardly buys brand loyalty as customers would easily shift to Peugeot 504 should its price be cut lower than the Beetle’s.

Besides, there’s the more worrying probability of Peugeot having longer staying power by virtue of having deeper cash reserves, should a pricing war ensue.