Igbo chieftain and businessman, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu at the weekend described theYoruba as ‘political rascals’, promising that they would be handled.
He spoke in Awka at the one year anniversary of the inauguration of Prof Charles Soludo as governor of Anambra State. Present at the event were dignitaries such as former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, who spoke on the topic of Igbophobia.
Iwuanyanwu, in a trending video, said nobody has the right to take the life of any innocent Igbo person, saying that anyone who did that would be fought by the Igbo.
Iwuanyanwu said the Igbo had invested so much in Nigeria and that they were not going to yield to pressure of people asking them to leave.
He said although there is no war between the Igbo in Lagos and the Yoruba, that the Yoruba were just political rascals and would be handled by his group.
“Nobody has the right to take the life of any innocent Igbo person, all of us are going to fight the battle, we are going to face the person, never again, we are in Nigeria and have invested in Nigeria.
“Our investments are too much, we are not going to take the pressure of people asking us to go, we are not going anywhere.
“And I want to tell those in Lagos to realise that there is no war between us and Yoruba, Yoruba are just political rascals and we are going to handle them,” he said in the video.
Obasanjo, speaking on what he called “Igbophobia”, said to ensure improved relationships among ethnic groups in the country, citizens should make themselves friendly wherever they are being feared.
He narrated whatbhe said was criticism that followed his appointment of Soludo, as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as minister of finance, when he was in office, actions he described as probably the best of the appointments he made.
“On one occasion, soon after I appointed him, somebody came to me and said wow, you have ruined the economy of Nigeria. I said how? He said an Igbo woman, minister of finance; an Igbo man, governor of Central Bank, then you have clearly completed the task of ruining the economy of Nigeria.
“I don’t know why he said that, except for what I can call Igbophobia, and I don’t take that lightly. It remains, it persists.
“But when you have that type of thing that was said to me and the type of thing that you know is going on, as I have just called it, what do we do with it?
“I believe we have to go back to the scripture, which says we must conquer evil with good. And whoever you are, wherever people are afraid of you, you must make yourself friendly to those who are afraid of you and earn their friendship by being good to them, and that is what we have to do.
“I have personally experienced that and nothing wins friendship like you being friendly,” he stated.
Obasanjo said it was while Soludo was on his team as his economic adviser, he was satisfied with his performance, that he decided to send him to the CBN, where he performed “so wonderfully well.
“Chukwuma was a good economist and he turned out to be a good CBN governor, because CBN is not like a commercial bank but a bank for development,” Obasanjo said.
