By Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo
Former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has been commended for living up to his status as a statesman and patriot by standing against the rash of ethnic hatred directed at Ndigbo.
The apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide lauded the former president in a press release issued weekend by the National Publicity Secretary, Dr Chiedozie Alex Ogbonnia.
Ohanaeze, which has continued to express alarm over the pervasive campaign of hatred against the Igbo, joined “millions of patriotic Nigerians and all the members of the civilised community” to thank Obasanjo for his principled stance.
It was particularly pleased with Obasanjo’s recent remarks condemning the Igbo Must Go hashtag by berating the ethnic bigots, telling tham that “those saying that the Igbo must go from Lagos will be the ones to leave”.
Ohanaeze equally commended the Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the pan Yoruba socio-cultural organization, the Afenifere and all individuals and groups that have come to condemn the resurgent hatred against Ndigbo.
In kicking against ethnic profiling, Obasanjo reportedly said that he “doesn’t believe that anybody in Nigeria should be driven away from any part of the country”, industing that “we own this country together”.
Nonetheless, Ohanaeze said it expects that more stakeholders in the South West should take a stand and not sit on the fence in the obvious attempt to stoke the embers of ethnic conflagration that could consume the entire nation.
Ohanaeze expressed its “grave concern over the orchestrated ethnic profiling, hate speech, incendiary and inflammatory rhetoric and outright demolition of Igbo properties and liquidation of their sources of income in Lagos State since a few years now”.
It noted that the re-emergence of Igbo hatred was being reinforced by the viral message urging that “Lagosians and every South-West stakeholder should prepare for the massive protest of #IgboMustGo on the 20th – 30th of August, 2024″.
“An X handle named ‘LagosPedia’ had recently demanded for “the forced relocation of Igbo people from Lagos and other South West states within one month,” Ohanaeze stated. It further noted that the hashtag #Igbomustgo also called on all “the Yoruba living in the South East to return to the South West”.
Recalling recent developments, especially from 2015 to the present, Ohanaeze pointed out a steady pattern of growing hatred and attacks directed at Igbos in Lagos culminating in physical violence and destructions of their properties.
It said: “In June 2023, a few days before the March 18, 2023 gubernatorial election, a video went viral on social media showing Alh. Musiliu Akinsanya, commonly known as ‘MC Oluomo’, where he issued a threat to the Igbo residents of Lagos to “either vote for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) or stay at home”.
“Based on the Oluomo doltish tantrums, political thugs went on a rampage carrying out civil-war-era-style eye tests to determine who was an Igbo and who was not.
“Earlier in 2015, the Oba of Lagos, Alh. Rilwan Akiolu had isuued a threat to the Igbo living in Lagos State “to either vote for the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Akinwumi Ambode, or else they will die in the lagoon”,
Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide also denounced the anti-Igbo rhetoric Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to the President on Communications and Strategy, who had on March 19, 2023, issued a serious warning to Ndigbo to refrain from involvement in Lagos politics.
Onanuga reportedly told the Igbo “Let 2023 be the last time of Igbo interference in Lagos politics. Let there be no repeat in 2027”.
Ohanaeze regretted that “when many well-meaning Nigerians including Mr. Festus Keyamo cautioned Onanuga on the ignoble path he has chosen for himself, he was quoted to have stated: ‘I owe no one apology for ethnic slur against the Igbo.’
The apex Igbo socio-cultural organization also cited the March 8, 2023 burning of Igbo dominated Akere Spare Parts Market spare parts markets by political thugs, who also “destroyed goods and properties belonging to the Igbo at Ikotun, Abaranje, and Ijegun markets”.
“In June 2023, several buildings belonging to the Igbo were demolished at the Alaba International Market. In November 2023, there were again the demolition of buildings belonging to the Igbo at Abule Ado in Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area of Lagos State,” Ohanaeze recounted with sadness.
It stated the ugly incidents cited above were merely “a tip of the iceberg of what the Igbo encounter in Lagos on a daily basis”.
While commending Governor Sanwo-Olu for expressing his abhorrence of Igbo hatred campaign and ethnic bigotry in a press release by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Gbenga Akosile, Ohanaeze Ndigbo called for deterrent action.
“It is certain that such reckless, provocative, divisive, instigative and inflammatory dispositions towards the Igbo in Lagos State, will remain unabated, except of course, there are manifest consequences for such vexatious, unscrupulous loose-cannons and hate-mongers,” Ohanaeze said.
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