Dear Editor:

I have seen the Osundu editorial and it is very tastefully done. It is a must read from start to finish. I encourage everyone to find time to read it and the other articles in the Osundu website. I thank the editorial board for seeing hope where others see despair and for seeing opportunity where others see failure.

For the first time in our Nation's history, Ndiigbo now have a platform that cuts across tribal lines and that platform is the PDP. It is the sort of playing field that is most suited to our strengths as a people. We can make Nigeria the Igbo man's playing field and I believe that it can be done in three fronts and in this relative order of importance. First, using the platform presented to us by the PDP, we must work tirelessly to outlaw all the practices by governmental entities that treat Nigerians differentially on the basis of tribal origin. This is roughly masked by protectionist laws that bar governmental employment, restrict trade, and restrain property ownership on the part of Nigerian citizens who are otherwise foreign to those states. The Igbos are most hurt by these laws. Those laws abound all over the place and prevent young Igbo men and women from pursuing employment opportunities outside Igbo land. When we get Igbos there, we keep them there. There is no reason why an electoral district encompassing the Sabon Gari districts should not be drawn to allow an Igbo man speak for Igbo interest in the State Houses of Assemblies of the Northern States or in the Yoruba states where Igbos live and trade. Only the Igbo man can do this and this is the type of game we should be playing.

Secondly, realizing that to get the non-Igbo states to disavow laws unfavorable to the economic pursuits of foreigners to their states - meaning mostly Igbo people, will take time and sustained efforts, we should and must get the various Igbo states to throw these laws out with immediate effect so that we can begin to forge a regional economic powerhouse. Igbo's political unification rides on Igbo's economic unification and not much attention has been paid to the latter. The Igbo state governors should caucus together and actively cooperate with one another so that Igbo wealth circulates pervasively among the Igbos before it gets redistributed to other parts of Nigeria. Roughly one third of Nigerian's wealth circulates around Lagos-Ibadan axis, another one third ciruculates around Abuja and the remaining one third circulates around the rest of the country. We are clearly disadvantaged and our governors should work hard to do their best to lessen the impact of those disadvantages.

Finally, the great equalizer - the reason why our people are not more impoverished today than they should have been is us. By us I mean Igbo professionals situated outside the country earning money and pumping back their disposable economy to the Igbo nation. In a sense, if you add our economic output to the economic output of the Igbo nation, you will begin to see why, after decades of marginalization, our people have still managed to survive. The problem with the money that we all generate and send back home is that it is spent in a decentralized fashion and not often so distributed that it yields lasting economic impact. Moreover, not only are we an economic resource, we represent an intellectual resource of great magnitude.

Organizations such as Osundu represent one of the many ways we can harness the intellectual resource we have to effect a change in the social and political processes that set us back. We need to be more involved at the grass root level. To that extent, please allow me to commend Dr. Okenwa Nwosu, one of the members of Osundu Inc. for doggedly carrying his message of hope and opportunity for the Igbo nation to different fora. I thank Osundu, Inc and I wish it well in all its endeavors on behalf of our people.

Chris Aniedobe