Ndigbo/China trade war..how the Chinese came with a knife to a gun fight.
When Harvard University chose to study the Ndigbo apprenticeship model,it ignored the environment.
Ndigbo grooms his apprentice business man within a business environment that sprouts directly from tradition.
Communalism regulates behaviour and is a source of strength.Lets take the markets as example.
If an importer or manufacturer brings goods to the market place.His Job ends there.The traders break bulk and sell at their own price and pace and don’t delay in repaying him/her.
The market is one big family.. occasionally admitting non igbo speaking members into its internal setting.
It’s the responsibity of the bulk breakers to see that manufacturer remains strong. Atimes bulk breakers contribute money for him…especially during unfavorable times.Unions exist to regulate the traditions.Unions replace courts.
The union are career and professional bodies that have more impact than government.Unions stand by members during funerals,marriages etc.
The union are in constant communication with member vis gongs,megapones and recently whatsapp and telegram,The unions interface with government on issue of security,sanitation and other ‘settlements’.
Union executives concentrate more on aggregate activities than daily trading.The Chinese trade intruders experienced this in one igbo dominated market in Lagos.why they chose to ignore this cultural hurdle in Alaba
International Market and Aspamda is not clear.
The Chinese also forgot that 70m igbos can stand as one.and in a population of 200m..a market loss of 70m is significant.
Why Ndigbo chose to allow protests when the traders could have ostracized the Chinese is equally worrisome.
Price is one factor,availability, consistency are equally strong and maybe the final things that will edge the Chinese out of Ndigbo markets nationwide.
The theory that another ethnic group is setting up the Chinese with a fight against the igbos..maybe valid but short-lived.what is at stake is cultural and not structural. A friendly government cannot force the people to choose how it spends.
A summary of the reactions of pan igbo groups on this issue revolve around a tripod..’onye aha la nwannne’(communal love)..’egbe bere,ugo bere (mutual coexistence),,’jide nke iji’(survival instinct)..in summary,the tribe stands 100% behind the traders.
It’s clear this is a cultural thing..and the Chinese started a gunfight armed with a pen knife.
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