Igbophobia: Obasanjo Insist Soludo, Iweala Best Appointment He Made

Former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo has debunked the “anti-Igbo” sentiment also known as “Igbophobia” toward people in the south eastern part of Nigeria.

VerseNews Nigeria reports that Obasanjo speaking at an event in Anambra State to commemorate Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s one year in office recalled his bond with Soludo and the current Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

Soludo was appointed the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), while Okonjo Iwela was the Minister of Finance during Obasnajo’s administration from 1999 to 2007.

Obasanjo noted that Soludo never gave him a false advice or mislead him as an economic adviser while piloting the economy of Nigeria

Despite critics, Obasanjo said that the economist’s performance of the professor in economics  impressed him so much so that he was asked to lead the apex bank.

According to the 85-year-old statesman, Soludo was the second Nigerian CBN governor who was not a commercial banker of some sort.

However, soon after appointing the academic, the ex-president said, he found himself in an encounter with a dissenting voice.

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Obasanjo said; “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?

“I believe we have to go back to the scripture, which says we must conquer evil with good.

“And whoever you are, wherever people are afraid of you, you must make yourself friendly to those who are afraid of you and earn their friendship by being good to them, and that is what we have to do.”

The former president noted from his personal experience, nothing wins friendship like one being friendly.