By Ezeocha Nzeh
The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has declared that the Olowu of Iwo, Oba Abdulrasheed Adewale Akanbi is not fit to function as a traditional ruler, following his partisan attack against Ndigbo in the quest for a South east president in 2023
Ohanaeze Ndigbo in a statement issued in reaction to the Oluwu’s attack on Igbo presidency, described as untrue the statement credited to Oba Abdulrosheed Adewale Akanbi, that the Igbo cannot be trusted with the office of the Nigerian presidency, adding that his attack on the Igbo was not based on any verifiable evidence but rather on self-serving interests.
Oba Akanbi had, in a statement issued through his Chief Press Secretary, Alli Ibraheem, expressed his fear in handing Nigeria over to an Igbo man in 2023, stating that “no Nigerian will feel secure in the hands of a leader whose ethnic attachment deprived other Nigerians of their rights”.
He further accused the Igbo of “preventing people from the other parts of the country from acquiring properties in their domain”, adding that “the style by the South easterners is barbaric”.
But Ohanaeze President General, Prof. George Obiozor, in his reaction to the royal attack, described the accusations as untrue, and advised Oba Akanbi to “undergo some tutelage under some more experienced cosmopolitan and intelligent monarchs”, stating that a well-adjusted traditional ruler is known by being open-minded towards all, especially people of other ethnic groups that may be found in his domain.
Obiozor’s reaction was contained in a statement issued through the National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze, Chief Alex Ogbonnia,
“It is self-evident that Nigeria is a beleaguered country that urgently needs nation-building; inflammatory and incendiary remarks from monarchs and the highly placed are antithetical to peace and unity of Nigeria.
“In promoting his preferred candidate, he has committed a fallacy of hasty generalisation when he stated that ‘the style by south easterners is barbaric; the Igbo cannot be trusted with power’, among others.
“One would think that the morbid fabrication of falsehood is terrible mischief, only for the uninitiated. What else? Oba Akanbi is drawn to his paradox, where he acknowledged the damage done to the Igbo during the Nigerian civil war and at the same time condemning the agitation by Igbo youth, such as the ESN for their clamour for inclusiveness based on equity and justice after about 53 years of the Nigerian Civil War,” the statement read in part.
