By Anayo Okoli

IGBO elite body, the Alaigbo Development Foundation, ADF, has appealed to wealthy Igbo people to consider as a priority, investing part of their wealth in Igbo land as a way of providing jobs for the youths and stop their migration out of Igbo land.

According to ADF, with such investment and orientation of youths who form a greater percentage of the active work development force, Alaigbo will witness rapid growth.

Two prominent leaders of ADF, Bishop Obi Onubuogu and   Abia Onyike, gave the advice  during the pre-launch of Blossom City Estate in Enugu by a Lagos-based real estate firm, Pinto Realty Limited. 

Speaking at the event, Onubuogu, who is the Chairman of the ADF Board, expressed joy that the firm shares the same vision and philosophy of Aku Ruo Ulo with the ADF.

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He said ADF had been campaigning since 2014 on the urgent need for Ndigbo in Diaspora to develop Igbo land by investing massively in the South East zone.

He called on the five governors of the South East states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo to initiate investor-friendly policies that will attract investors to their states and urged them to key into theAku Ruo Ulo campaign to fast-track development and industrialization of the South East region.

Onubuogu recalled that the Igbo had witnessed a lot of injustices in Nigeria since the 1960s culminating in the Nigeria/Biafra war, and more recently during the 2023 general elections, such that they must learn some useful  lessons from those ugly past and think towards putting some of their investments to develop Igbo land.

“Right now, the whole trend is, and it has dawned on us, Ndigbo, that Aku ruo Ulo is what should be our song these days. We have to drum this song into our ears and those of our children,” he said.

In his remarks,  Abia Onyike, the acting General Secretary of ADF, praised  Pinto for the decision to invest in Enugu.

According to Onyike: “Our idea is that even though the Igbo are known to be very great migrants, the time has come for us to get back to our place to lay the foundation for the internal process of development and industrialization.

“Because of our historical experiences over time, the civil war and all that, we travel but we should also travel and try to come back home by remembering that we cannot leave our homeland to any other people.

“And as it was said in the process of this gathering, it was clear that even the activities of herdsmen, who have been creating crises in Igbo land, trying to occupy the Igbo communities; once it is certain that those land resources are taken up by our people for buildings and having agro projects, it will no longer be possible for the herdsmen to occupy our land.” 

He said ADF was at the forefront of pushing for the approval of Blossom City Estate, as it made representation to the then Enugu governor since both ADF and Lolo Chimezie shared the same vision of Igbos in the Diaspora should invest in and develop their areas, rather than waiting for the federal government to do it.