Former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obsanjo has said that the alleged Igbo discrimination happening in Lagos is a disease that people should be overcome.
Speaking at an event in Anambra State to commemorate Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s one year in office, Obasanjo said that it is an act of Igbophobia for people to discriminate the Igbos.
He further added that while he was the president of Nigeria, he appointed an Igbo woman, Okonjo-Iweala as Finance Minister and an Igbo man, Governor Soludo as governor of Central Bank, mentioning also that their appointments were probably the best of the appointments that he made when he was the president
“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 the 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?
He said: “I worked closely with Soludo while I was president and was impressed with his loyalty and lofty ideas, and when he approached me to seek my blessings that he wanted to be Anambra governor, I declined, telling him he would be more useful in a national or international role.
The former president said, “Soludo was close to me as an economic adviser when I was president and never misadvised me even once. That was why I sent him to the Central Bank of Nigeria later on.
“Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Chukwuma Soludo were the best appointments that I made while I was president.”