Ipob should have used its presence in Japan to push for infrastructural development across the southeast

By Ayo Akinfe 

(1) I think Ipob has missed a trick at the Seventh Tokyo African Investment Summit in Japan. It should have used the opportunity to project itself as the true voice of Ndigbo and use the opportunity to woo Japanese investors to come and invest in the southeast. This would have put the governors under pressure to conclude such deals and showed Ipob to be the genuine champion of the Igbo masses 

(2) For starters, why has Ipob not asked any Japanese investor to build a third River Niger Bridge linking say Illah in Delta State with Nzam in Anambra State 

(3) I believe Ipob should also have sought audience with Japan’s automobile manufacturers like Nissan, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Honda, Mazda, Suzuki, etc, asking them to consider entering into a joint venture with Innoson. Just imagine a Toyota/Innoson electric car manufacturing factory in say Umuahia that employs 10,000 people

(4) Were I am Ipob member, I would also be asking Japanese urban developers to come to Aba and see if they can help build a drainage network there. Aba is like a riverine community in the rainy season and desperately needs an urban drainage network. Aba is an embarrassment to the entire African continent and for me, Ipob needs to have a strategy to address this if it wants to be taken seriously 

(5) Nobody has benefited from the creation of Nigeria as much as Ndigbo. Lugard’s initiative opened up space and access to markets that enabled Igbos to trade extensively. Ipob should have been asking Japanese investors to build on this by considering constructing trading rail routes so Igbo traders can get their goods to every nook and cranny of Nigeria 

(6) Pre-colonial Igboland was made up of small villages, hamlets, clans and rural settlements. Thanks to the creation of Nigeria, the southeast is now highly urbanised. Ipob should have asked Japanese property developers to see if they can build on this by building new towns and cities. I am talking of purpose-built cities like Abuja, New Bussa, Lekki and Milton Keynes 

(7) Nigeria’s southeast geo-political zone faces the worst erosion problem in Africa. I think Ipob should have sought the counsel of Japanese property developers to stem the tide. Just imagine how much of a moment of crowning glory it would be for Ipob to welcome a group of urban planners to Igboland 

(8) Ndigbo are by far the most innovative people in Africa when it comes to technological advancements. Is Ipob not thinking of training Igbo youths in Japan? If Ipob had a programme to train say 500 Igbo youths annually in railway carriage construction, automobile assembly, machine tool manufacturing, etc in Japan, the federal government would be forced to recognise the body as a development partner 

(9) Japan has not really shown enough commitment to African welfare programmes so far. Ipob could have challenged the Japanese to maybe introduce mobile health clinics, adult literacy classes, Internet usage seminars, etc. In South Africa for instance, there used to be a rail-based mobile health clinic that went to remote villages to offer immunisation. Ipob could have suggested this in the southeast 

(10) Politics is about outmanoeuvring your opponents not just emotional propaganda. To succeed, you need coherent policies, clear ideas and a proper delivery strategy. Ipob accuses the southeast governors of being irresponsible but here they had an opportunity to outflank them and flunked it. This Japan conference could have been Ipob’s defining moment. Just imagine if Ipob had produced a development document titled something like: Bringing Socio-Economic Development to Igboland. It appears that the only demand Ipob has is secession. Beyond that, it is an empty shell devoid of policies, ideas and programmes