Wilson Adekumola
A chieftain of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo socio-cultural organisation, Okechukwu Isiguzoro, has disclosed that Igbos will continue to hail former President Olusegun Obasanjo for the opportunity he has always given to the Igbos.
He said the role Obasanjo played to ensure the civil war ended in 1970 and his recent support for an Igbo man against his own clan man shows is an Igbo in spirit but biologically, Yoruba man.
Isiguzoro made this disclosure in response to a comment by former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode.
Recall that Fani-Kayode had said Obasanjo’s father might not truly be a Yoruba man, because his ‘silence’ over a comment by Igbo businessman, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, that Yoruba people are “political rascals,” was an sign that the former president’s father was an Igbo man not Yoruba.
In his reaction, the Ohanaeze’s Secretary-General, said Obasanjo’s support for a Southeast presidency was an indication that he is Igbo.
Daily Post reported that Isiguzoro said Obasanjo’s decision to support the push of the Labour Party, presidential candidate, Peter Obi against the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, shows that he’s an Igbo man.
Isiguzoro said, “Biologically, there have been unconfirmed speculations that Obasanjo is an Igbo man, though he has denied it a lot of times. But his recent antecedent of rewriting the bad history written in 1967 to 1970, when most of them as young officers led the war against Biafra, has shown that he’s an Igbo man.
“Based on what we have seen from Ohanaeze’s dossier, Obasanjo played a huge part in ensuring the war ended in 1970.
“His recent antecedent during the campaign against his fellow Yoruba man while supporting an Igbo man shows that he is trying to rewrite the history written in 1970.
“Obasanjo has shown that he is an Igbo man in spirit but biologically he comes from Ogun State. The opportunity he gave and created for Igbos from 1999 to 2007 has shown that he is more of an Igbo man than a Yoruba man.
“He has shown himself to be a patriot that wants an Igbo man to be the president of Nigeria, before he leaves this world. This is what we all have appreciated that he is a national patriot and the Ndigbo will continue to be grateful to him.
“In essence, Obasanjo is an Igbo man in spirit, mind you, one of the presidential candidates from Kano is an Igbo man. We are also aware that a former governor of Cross River State is Igbo, but we don’t want to mention their names, so as not to cause a crisis in Nigeria.”