Phil Okose, Onitsha
A Pan-Igbo socio-political organization, Imeobi Igbo Forum, on Tuesday in Awka, Anambra State capital, condemned in strong terms the conferment of the chieftaincy title of “Osodieme” on Senator Remi Tinubu, wife of President Bola Tinubu, by Igbo Traditional Rulers’ Council.
The group insisted that the First Lady does not deserve such an honour from the Igbo race, the forum disclosed that she once threatened and massively abused the Igbo residents in Lagos in 2019 during electioneering campaigns, demanding that their properties be confiscated by the Yoruba.
Making the condemnation through its national chairman, Chief Ikegulu Chukwukpezie, the forum reiterated that conferring such honour on her is a desecration of Igbo customs and tradition, lamenting that those who are supposed to speak out against the injustices meted out to their Igbo brothers turned deaf ears and endorsed her conferment.
The forum said, “The drum beats are silent.The canopies and chairs returned to the rental. The hired crowd has dispersed. Not minding the way and manner the desecration of Igbo custom and tradition went. All for a woman who has massively abused the Igbo in 2019 in Lagos.
“She pontificated that Igbos should be driven out of Lagos and their properties confiscated and taken over by the yorubas. In another encounter with an Igbo woman voters in Lagos, she cinically claimed that ‘Igbos we no dey trust una again’.
“Ever since, the woman had neither recanted her statements nor apologized to Ndigbo. Imeobi Igbo Forum wonders whether this new love she now professes while collecting titles is genuine? Could it be just for votes? Since when did she restore trust for the untrustworthy Igbos.
“So why are some Southeast political elites falling over each other to please her and endorse her husband? These characters occupying political offices paid glowing tributes to her husband, even promised to ensure that Ndigbo by all means vote for APC, come 2027.
“After these many days of jamboree, what is there for Ndigbo? Or is it just to link up a few individuals to the seat of power to beg, cap in hand?
“It was expected that the old and new APC members including those with a foot on two camps, would have sat down with the August guest to secure some mouth-watering concessions for Ndigbo.
“Some would say that she is not the president, but having been conferred with the title of Oso di eme, means that she is hand in glove with her husband in managing or mismanaging Nigeria. If Remi Tinubu is an ‘Oso di eme’, it means that she is an accomplice to all the injustices perpetrated against Ndigbo by her husband’s mismanagement of Igbo concerns.
“Ndigbo want answers to many issues, which include that young Igbo youths randomly picked up in the pretence of being IPOB/ESN are languishing in various secret detention centres across Nigeria without trial.
“Recruitments and appointments are done in Nigeria federal establishments, excluding Igbos. Loans are procured, for which igbos will be part of the repayment, for infrastructure development, but Southeast zone would not benefit. Rail lines that have crisscrossed Nigeria with a tube train, to go from Lagos to Maiduguri, but have not found its path in the Igbo heartland.
“Even the gas harvested in the Southeast is reticulated away, circumventing the Igbo heartland.
“Enugu – Port Harcourt expressway have remained a death trap.No functional seaport in the Southeast which is the destination of most imports in Nigeria.No international airport in the Southeast, with the most travelled population in Nigeria.
“So what exactly drives some Igbo political and business elites to support an administration that is more anti Igbo than Buhari administration?
“Greed! No other force than greed for wealth and material acquisitions. Prominent yorubas have assrted that they are Yorubas before Nigeria. When will the Igbo be Igbo first, before Nigeria? So we ask again, what exactly is the benefit of the jamboree with the First Lady for Ndigbo?
“Ndigbo must borrow a leaf from other nationalities in Nigeria, having suffered deadly sabotage and backstabbing in the past, we must learn to be our brother’s keeper and demand what is due to us as a people,” the forum maintained.
For a better society
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