This op-ed challenges the myth of Igbo prosperity, revealing how culture, politics, and consumption habits intersect to shape public perception—and misperception—about Nigeria’s most visible ethnic business community. A powerful, necessary read for every Nigerian thinker.
A popular fiction has been normalized and consecrated into a national myth. Everybody believes it. No one questions a myth. It is often said that when a lie gets repeated ever so often, it assumes the status of a truth. Everyone mouths it, repeats it endlessly to a point where it becomes a creed, a truism that is beyond questioning. People parrot myths. They hardly question them. Worse still, myths condition and shape reality and how people relate to it.
You hear the same thing in garbled versions everywhere: the Igbos are a prosperous lot. In beer parlours, barbers’ corner shops, markets, the media, and social media, the Igbos are viewed as a prosperous tribe of Nigerians. Just by being Igbo, people are seen as automatically well off—conferred with wealth above their fellow Nigerians who are not of Igbo stock. Somehow, according to this myth, the Igbos seem to have a Midas touch that transforms their individual strivings into instant prosperity—retail chain stores, real estate, hotels, shops, whole markets, plush mansions, endless apartment blocks, etc. Tenant today, landlord tomorrow, so the catechism goes.
Above all, the Igbos have a way of transforming every part of the federation where they live or do business into islands of prosperity over time. They take home surpluses of their profit to their Eastern countryside. Luxury mansions and castles spring up in most of the Igbo homeland, even if much of that landmass remains in primitive neglect and dereliction.
Favourite Igbo business undertakings range from retail trade to interstate transportation and massive importation of goods from China, Hong Kong, Dubai, Turkey, etc. Omenuko is a born wanderer, a compulsive traveler in quest of wares and opportunities.
Other Igbos simply migrate to nearly every corner of the globe, where they expand into the professions, establish retail businesses, and attract fellow Igbos from all over to join them. There is hardly any part of the world where you do not find Igbo enclaves doing what they are known for at home: business and hard work. You do not need to teach an Igbo child to be entrepreneurial—it is in his or her DNA.
“Shops cannot be hidden; they have signage to guide and direct customers.”
Igbos used to be famed for frugality and modesty in spending. They used to save aggressively, practicing delayed gratification and avoiding overt displays of prosperity. Not anymore. In recent times, successful Igbo businesspersons in Nigeria have learnt new habits from their Nigerian neighbours. They now stage elaborate parties to mark birthdays, naming ceremonies, weddings, and burials. At these lavish occasions, Igbos have pushed the excesses of spraying cash to ridiculous extents. Wads, bundles, and boxes of mint currency are literally pasted or thrown all over the celebrants in assorted denominations.
This has often attracted law enforcement agencies like the EFCC, the police, and ICPC, in a bid to arrest abusers of the Naira. Some law enforcement agents have embarrassingly found themselves policing abusers of US Dollars and UK Pound Sterling—currencies not covered by legislation against abuse of the Naira!
“Unproductive conspicuous consumption of this magnitude has never been known to aid capital accumulation.”
I cannot think of Mr. Dangote asking his bankers to send him $10 million in cash to spray at loafers and lazy urchins at a birthday party! I recall a social media clip where Mr. Dangote said he prefers hotel accommodation in Abuja, London, and Atlanta to owning houses around the world with their attendant maintenance and tax burdens.
Belief in automatic Igbo prosperity has led to other sad practices. During festive seasons, the knowledge that Igbos will return home by road or air skews the nation’s transportation industry. Airfares skyrocket on Eastern routes. Fares on land routes also soar. Police checkpoints multiply between Sagamu and Onitsha Bridge on the Lagos-Eastern route. People have counted over 60 checkpoints, sometimes averaging one every 100 meters.
These are toll collection centres, not security checkpoints. No police statistics have shown that increased traffic is linked to an upsurge in crime. Yet, in all of this, Igbo prosperity remains a myth not backed by any statistics or informed studies—just speculation based on cultural practices.
Traditional Igbo business methods have not helped counter this unfortunate drift. Igbos are mostly traders. Trading takes place in open shops with signage. So, they can hardly hide their sources of money. This exposed business culture means they rarely wield covert economic power. Their shops are easy targets during upheavals—arsonists know where to strike.
“They are beasts of burden… if a task seems too far-fetched, send in an Igbo person.”
This visible culture is a weakness. True capital accumulation and wealth consolidation often lie in invisible trade: stock markets, insurance, telecommunications, fintech, technology, manufacturing—sectors that control other businesses. Igbo investment in these invisible sectors remains low. Only during the Obasanjo presidency did Igbo traders begin investing in shares and stocks.
Prior to that, the Igbo trader was a conservative and traditional wealth holder. This cash is often hidden in safes at home, in mattresses, in real estate, or stored in septic tanks and overhead water tanks. Some of this is offloaded at lavish parties, sprayed amid alcohol, overeating, and the flaunting of champagne brands that rival Western extravagance.
For a people once reputed for wisdom and economic prudence, the Igbos’ new love for conspicuous consumption has reached new heights. Among Nigerian ethnic elites, Igbos now top the scale in country home extravagance. Some village compounds boast 5 to 7 separate mansions—main house, madam’s quarters, guest wings, family quarters, and servant wings—for a man who only visits once a year.
“Illustrious and hardworking patriots do not necessarily have to be compensated with the highest political office in the land.”
As part of the décor, a $750,000 Rolls Royce Phantom is parked in the lot, covered in silk and unused. It is uncovered to impress visitors or make a grand entrance at a wedding or church service. These practices have become commonplace among a people traditionally envied for their thrift and enterprise.
Unproductive conspicuous consumption has never aided capital accumulation or economic ascendancy. It reflects an achievement complex within the Nigerian system—a desire by Igbos to prove that, despite exclusion and marginalization, they are thriving. The silent anthem seems to be: “Nigeria, you blocked us from the commonwealth but see how well we are doing.” But this culture of glitz is alien to original Igbo values.
The opinions expressed in this letter are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily align with the views of JolibaLive News! or any of its staff members. The author is in no way associated with this online news blog.
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