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 such
as the Civil War could not deter them from known entrepreneurial spirit and excelling in
entrepreneurship and this is palpable in every economic activity they have engaged and
engaging in. Rather one of the innovations brought into the marketplace, a practice known in
local parlance as igba oso-ahia, is the reason the entire group have come under serious
opprobrium. This paper thus x-rayed the activities of Igbo traders in the typical marketplace
in order to improve market exchanges and reposition the group. It adopted the ethical value
system and community service approach made popular by Shapero and Sokol (1982), and
others; and interviewed some randomly selected Igbo traders and elicited the opinions of
some 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 and
the anti-people policies of successive administrations in Nigeria, and even the outright
marginalization of the group, the practice is presently odious and attracts serious resentment
of the Igbo. It is not only hurting market exchanges and the economy but also the reputation
of the group in a highly diverse and complex nation. More still, if the practice is considered
tolerable in earlier times, it is out-rightly anachronistic and an anathema in modern industrial
society. It therefore calls on Igbo traditional institutions, town unions, and others, for total
jettisoning of the unwholesome practice. In addition, government and market authorities
should ensure that right compliances are maintained in the marketplace.