Bode George, a former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has described as “arrant nonsense”, recent calls by some faceless groups asking Igbo people to leave Lagos State.
George, who said this in Lagos, said such type of campaign is ‘arrant nonsense’ and ‘sheer stupidity.
The retired army officer, who is a Lagos indigene, spoke on the sidelines 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 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 Nnamdi Azikwe, who is of Igbo extraction, became the political son of his great grand uncle, Sir Herbert Macaulay.
He said that Azikwe, the first President of Nigeria, had joined Macaulay in the nationalism struggles before Obafemi Awolowo and his group arrived from the UK.
He opined that those spreading such hate were not Lagos indigenes but people who came from neighboring states and were accommodated in the state.
Recall that recent campaigns on social media, especially in the build-up to the #EndBadGovernment 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 thoughts.
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.
