Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Bode
George, has described as “arrant nonsense”, recent calls by some groups asking
Igbo people to leave Lagos.
“That type of campaign is ‘arrant nonsense’; it is ‘sheer
stupidity,” George told the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos.
The retired army officer, a Lagos indigene, spoke on the
sideline of an interactive session with the media on the State of the Nation,
held at his office in Ikoyi.
“It is nonsense. I say it is arrant nonsense. Why should we
be saying that the Igbo people should leave?
“We have grown with them here. I had known them. We played
local football, local football together.
“I think those who are proposing or talking about it are not
Lagos indigenes themselves.
“In Lagos, we welcome traders. Bring your wares, we look at
it, we buy it, you make your money, we give you land to build. That is the
culture of Lagos.
“Those who are proposing this nonsense have no bearing, no
family connection to Lagos.
“I am saying it as a Lagosian. It is arrant stupidity. Why
would you tell them to leave? They pay their taxes,” he fumed.
George, who went down memory lane, recalled that Dr Nnamdi
Azikwe, who is of Igbo extraction, became the political son of his great grand
uncle, Sir Herbert Macaulay.
The former Deputy National Chairman of the PDP said that
Azikwe, the first President of Nigeria, had joined Macaulay in the nationalism
struggles before the late Obafemi Awolowo and his group arrived from the UK.
“Why are you fighting
them? Does it make sense? Lagos State was created in 1967. Since that time to
now, the Igbo have had their contributions.
“So, to me, such campaign is idiotic. Very idiotic. They
should stop,” George cautioned.
He opined that those spreading such hate were not Lagos
indigenes but people who came from neighbouring states and were accommodated in
the state.
“They should just shut up. If they have a right to come
here, why are they blocking others?
“The Igbo have their own contribution to make.
“They are buying houses and building houses. They are
contributing to the development of economic activities in Lagos. They are most
welcome,” he added.
NAN reports that recent campaigns on social media, especially
in the build-up to the #EndBadGovernmentInNigeria nationwide protest, focused
on asking Igbo to leave Lagos
The persistent noise attracted the attention of President
Bola Tinubu who quickly reacted by asking the crusaders to perish such thought.
Tinubu’s response, which formed part of his Sunday morning
national broadcast on the nationwide protest, declared that Nigeria had no
place for such ethnic sentiments.
NAN.
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