By Paul Ibe
Some political relationships are born out of electoral calculations. Others are forged through decades of friendship, mutual respect and shared experiences. The relationship between former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the Igbo people of Nigeria’s Southeast belongs, in significant measure, to the latter category.
A video featuring Chief Dan Ulasi, former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Anambra State, which I recently stumbled upon, offers a compelling reminder of this relationship and its historical roots. Chief Ulasi recalls how Atiku, as an officer of the Nigeria Customs Service, assisted Igbo businessmen in clearing their imported goods during the difficult years following the Nigerian Civil War.
It is a remarkable testimony, not because Atiku is today a presidential candidate, but because the relationship described predates his involvement in national politics. It speaks to a time when the overriding concern of the average Igbo businessman was not electoral politics but economic survival.
To appreciate the significance of Chief Ulasi’s recollection, we must revisit the circumstances of the Southeast following the Civil War. When the war ended in January 1970, the Igbo people faced enormous devastation. Businesses had collapsed, properties had been destroyed, families had been displaced and personal savings had been substantially eroded.
To compound their difficulties, the controversial £20 policy meant that many people surrendering wartime currency received a flat payment of just £20, regardless of the amount deposited. Although the policy did not apply uniformly to every bank account, it remains an enduring symbol of the economic hardship that followed the war.
Yet, the Igbo refused to surrender to adversity. With remarkable resilience, they rebuilt their businesses, revived their commercial networks and reclaimed their place in Nigeria’s economic life. From Onitsha to Aba, Nnewi to Enugu, and across the length and breadth of Nigeria, Igbo entrepreneurship flourished. It was during this period of reconstruction that Atiku, who joined the Nigeria Customs Service in 1969, began developing the commercial relationships that Chief Ulasi recalls.
His account portrays Atiku as someone who assisted Igbo businessmen navigating the challenges of clearing imported goods. Here was a young Customs officer from northern Nigeria relating with businessmen from the East, not through the divisive prism of ethnicity or religion, but through the shared realities of commerce and human relationships.
This is the Atiku story that deserves greater attention: a relationship with the Igbo people that did not begin with the search for presidential votes. And it is a relationship that provides an important context for examining Atiku’s economic vision for the Southeast.
Atiku understands that the Igbo entrepreneurial spirit needs more than praise. It requires an enabling environment, reliable infrastructure, affordable financing and government policies that reward productivity.
Consider the plight of businessmen and manufacturers in Aba, Onitsha and Nnewi. A manufacturer in Aba battles unreliable electricity, expensive diesel, inadequate financing and high transportation costs. An industrialist in Nnewi confronts similar challenges while struggling to remain competitive. An importer in Onitsha must contend with the cost of moving goods from distant seaports.
These difficulties are not inevitable. They are problems that purposeful economic policies can address. This explains the significance of Atiku’s commitment to the rehabilitation and development of ports along Nigeria’s eastern maritime corridor.
In August 2026, Atiku reiterated his intention to develop eastern ports and reduce Nigeria’s excessive dependence on Lagos for maritime commerce. He recalled discussions with international shipping and port-development interests aimed at improving the country’s maritime infrastructure.
The commercial implications for the Southeast are considerable. Why should a businessman in Onitsha or a manufacturer in Aba bear enormous transportation costs moving containers from Lagos when functioning ports in Port Harcourt, Onne, Warri and Calabar could offer alternative gateways?
Although these ports are geographically located in the South-South, their rehabilitation and efficient operation would directly benefit businesses throughout the Southeast.
Improved port operations, supported by reliable road and rail connections, could lower logistics costs, reduce congestion, facilitate trade and strengthen the competitiveness of Nigerian manufacturers.
Atiku’s earlier commitment to making the Onitsha inland port functional is equally important. Properly developed and connected to other transportation networks, it could become a significant logistics centre for the region’s commercial activities.
The proposed operationalisation of the Abia dry port offers another opportunity. At a presidential campaign rally in Umuahia in February 2023, Atiku pledged to make the Abia dry port operational and announced a proposed $10 billion fund to support businesses, particularly in the Southeast. He recalled an earlier commitment to assist the rehabilitation of businesses in Aba.
These are commitments with potentially far-reaching implications. A properly structured business-support fund, with transparent financing and administration, could help manufacturers acquire modern equipment, expand production, create employment and compete more effectively in domestic and international markets.
The Southeast does not lack entrepreneurial talent. What it needs is an economic environment that allows that talent to flourish. Aba’s footwear, garment and leather industries deserve stronger industrial infrastructure and access to affordable credit. Nnewi’s automobile-parts and engineering industries require reliable electricity, modern technology and supportive manufacturing policies. Onitsha’s vast commercial networks need efficient transportation, improved logistics and predictable Customs procedures.
Beyond infrastructure, Atiku’s proposals for restructuring and greater devolution of powers provide another important dimension to the development of the Southeast.
For too long, Nigeria’s excessive centralisation has constrained the ability of states to address their peculiar development needs. A restructured federation, with clearly defined responsibilities and appropriate resources, could give states greater flexibility to develop industrial clusters, attract investment, improve infrastructure and respond effectively to local economic challenges.
Security must also occupy a central place in any serious development agenda for the Southeast. Insecurity, violent attacks, criminal activities and disruptions to commercial life have inflicted considerable hardship on communities and businesses.No region can realise its economic potential when traders cannot move freely, factories cannot operate consistently and ordinary citizens live in fear.
A credible security framework must therefore combine effective law enforcement, community participation, intelligence gathering and greater cooperation between federal and state authorities.
Equally important is the challenge of political inclusion. The Southeast deserves equitable representation in national institutions, fair access to federal infrastructure investments and the assurance that its people are equal stakeholders in the Nigerian federation.
These are not demands for special treatment. They are legitimate expectations of citizenship.
It is precisely here that the question of national leadership becomes important. Under President Bola Tinubu, the administration has faced persistent criticism over perceptions of ethnic favouritism, religious divisions and unequal political representation. Those criticisms deserve serious examination rather than automatic dismissal as opposition politics.
Nigeria cannot afford a political culture in which ethnicity becomes a measure of loyalty or religion determines who is considered sufficiently Nigerian.
The President of Nigeria is not the President of one ethnic group, one religion or one geopolitical zone. He is President of all Nigerians.
Atiku’s longstanding advocacy of national inclusion and restructuring offers a different framework for discussing these challenges.
But one principle should not be negotiable: no Nigerian should be made to feel like a second-class citizen in his own country.
An Igbo businessman investing in Kano, a Hausa entrepreneur operating in Onitsha, or a Yoruba professional working in Enugu must enjoy equal dignity, protection and opportunity. That is the essence of the Nigerian ideal.
The relationship recalled by Chief Dan Ulasi illustrates the importance of human connections that transcend the artificial boundaries of ethnic and religious politics.
More than five decades after the Civil War, Nigeria should have moved decisively beyond the politics of suspicion, exclusion and historical resentment.
The promise of reconciliation must find expression in economic opportunity, equitable development and national belonging. There is also an important evolution in the Atiku story. The young Customs officer whom Chief Ulasi remembers for assisting businessmen with the clearance of their goods is today proposing policies intended to address the structural challenges confronting those same commercial communities.
The task is no longer merely to help individual businessmen clear their containers. It is to build a system in which containers move efficiently, ports function competitively, manufacturers enjoy affordable electricity and businesses prosper without unnecessary obstacles.
That is the difference between individual assistance and institutional development. Ultimately, the Igbo people, like Nigerians everywhere, deserve to assess political leaders by their records, commitments and capacity to deliver meaningful development. Atiku’s historical relationships, his proposals for eastern ports, business financing, industrial development and restructuring are relevant considerations in that assessment.
Chief Ulasi’s testimony reminds us that political relationships need not begin and end with elections. They can be built through decades of mutual respect, cooperation and shared humanity.
Nigeria’s unity will not be secured by political slogans or forced declarations of patriotism. It will be sustained when every Nigerian, whether Igbo, Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba, Ijaw, Tiv, Kanuri or from any other community, experiences the dignity of equal citizenship.
And when the ports work, factories produce, businesses prosper and opportunities become accessible to all, national integration will cease to be merely a political aspiration.
It will become a lived reality. That is the Nigeria worth building. And that is the enduring lesson in the relationship between Atiku Abubakar and the Igbo people.
Paul Ibe, Media Adviser to Atiku Abubakar, writes from Abuja.
