Ohaneze denies anti -Yoruba remarks credited to Iwuanyanwu
Ben Ezechime, Enugu
The Ohaneze Ndigbo Worldwide has rebutted a story on the social media credited to the Chairman of Council of Elders of Ohaneze, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, saying that “Yorubas are political rascals”.
National Publicity Secretary of Ohaneze, Dr Alex Ogbonnia, made the rebuttal on behalf the body in a statement issued Sunday in Enugu.
Ogbonnia described the news as fake, unfounded and concocted by enemies of peace, progress and unity of Nigeria.
He said: “Our attention has been drawn to the fake news making the rounds that the Chairman, Council of Elders, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, CFR (Ahaejiagamba) referred to the Yoruba as polical rascals.
“This is a typical falsehood, fabricated by social media entrepreneurs, decorated with wings, expanded with venoms, injected with ethnic nuances and propelled to fly to various corners, fronts and heights in order to create inter-ethnic mistrust between the age-long partners in social, cultural, religious and economic development of Nigeria. Indeed it is a lie from the pit of hell.”
According Ogbonna, Chief Iwuanyanwu while speaking in Awka, the Anambra State capital on Saturday at the event to mark the one year in office of Gov. Chukwuma Soludo, merely, drew the attention of the audience and the general public to the fact that, Ndigbo and Yorubas were neither quarrelling nor fighting.
He quoted Iwuanyanwu as saying: “I want to tell those in Lagos to realize that there is no war between us and the Yoruba.
“Those, who attacked Ndigbo in Lagos recently are rascals who should be arrested”.
Ogbonnia regretted that the clear message which Iwuanyanwu was passing across was mischievously twisted to imply that “Yoruba people are political rascals and that we will fight them”.
“This is quel dommage! It is from the insidious minds that wish to create rift between the Igbo and the Yoruba ethnics.
“At any time in history, there is often a tug of war between two major groups; mostly the good people with conscience on one hand and the devious insidious minds on the other.
“However the moral force of the godly will always countervail the unconscionable.
“This helps to keep the world in an ontological equilibrium; so, as much as some mischief makers will twist the speech by Iwuanyanwu, the truth remains that Ahaejiagamba hold the Yoruba in a very high esteem and he used the Awka event to express it, ” Ogbonna said.
The Publicity Secretary of the apex Igbo sociocultural group emphasised that what happened in Lagos recently could not be attributed to the Yoruba ethnic group but rather it was the handiwork of rascals, hooligans, spivs, charlatans, miscreants and dregs of Lagos society.
He described Chief Iwuanyanwu as a renowned patriotic and detribalised Nigerian, who had enjoyed “the fidelity, confidence, solidarity, support of the Yorubas when he was in active business and politics.”
He recalled the cordial relationship the elder statesman had with the Yoruba when he contested for the presidency of Nigeria in 1992 and as an Executive Chairman/Publisher Champion Newspaper Limited, Chairman Oriental Airlines Limited, Chairman Oriental Shipping Lines Ltd; among others.
“Iwuanyanwu in all his private and public discussions has often commended the profound Yoruba cultural values, intellect and and hospitality.
“He constantly applauds the cordial relationship between the Igbo and the Yoruba, citing that several Igbo are integral part of various Yoruba communities.
“The depth of the roots of the intermarriages that have taken place between the Igbo and the Yoruba is transcendental, eternal and can no longer be uprooted.
“The successful marriages of Yoruba daughters by frontline Igbo sons; Chief Emeka Anyaoku; Asagba of Asaba, Professor Joseph Chike Edozien; Professor Vincent Ike, Professor Okey Ndibe, etc and vice versa, exemplify the irreproachable similarity in the Igbo Yoruba cultural values and cosmology, ” Ogbonnia said.
He said that Ohaneze Ndigbo would resist any attempts to paint the 2023 presidential election as an ethnic event.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Ohanaeze Ndigbo will resist any attempt to paint the 2023 presidential election with an ethnic tar.
“Evidently, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Peoples Congress (APC) and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) enjoyed the support of eminent Igbo sons and daughters.
“It is also on record that the emergence of Peter Obi and the successes he recorded in the presidential election were by Nigerians of all ethnics, class and creed.
“This accounts for why the Ohanaeze was about the last to adopt Peter Obi as a presidential candidate of the Labour Party.
“Ohanaeze rather re-affirmed and indeed reaffirms its stand on the position of the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) led by Chief E K Clarke and Chief Ayo Adebanjo, ” he said.
