THE PHENOMENON OF ‘IGBA OSO-AHIA’ IN IGBO ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN A MODERN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY

Abstract

Evidences have proven that even the existential challenges the Igbo faced suchas the Civil War could not deter them from known entrepreneurial spirit and excelling inentrepreneurship and this is palpable in every economic activity they have engaged andengaging in. Rather one of the innovations brought into the marketplace, a practice known inlocal parlance as igba oso-ahia, is the reason the entire group have come under seriousopprobrium. This paper thus x-rayed the activities of Igbo traders in the typical marketplacein order to improve market exchanges and reposition the group. It adopted the ethical valuesystem and community service approach made popular by Shapero and Sokol (1982), andothers; and interviewed some randomly selected Igbo traders and elicited the opinions ofsome enlightened Nigerians in major markets in Abuja, Lagos and Port-Harcourt. At the end,it found that while it may have been a coping method to survive the post-civil war times andthe anti-people policies of successive administrations in Nigeria, and even the outrightmarginalization of the group, the practice is presently odious and attracts serious resentmentof the Igbo. It is not only hurting market exchanges and the economy but also the reputationof the group in a highly diverse and complex nation. More still, if the practice is consideredtolerable in earlier times, it is out-rightly anachronistic and an anathema in modern industrialsociety. It therefore calls on Igbo traditional institutions, town unions, and others, for totaljettisoning of the unwholesome practice. In addition, government and market authoritiesshould ensure that right compliances are maintained in the marketplace.