Remarks by Olusegun Obasanjo About “Igbophobia”

Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president of Nigeria, has denounced what he calls “Igbophobia” and the “persistent” dislike certain Nigerians have towards the Igbo people.

Soludo oversaw the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from 1999 to 2007 when Okonjo-Iweala, the current director general of the World Trade Organization, served as the country’s finance minister.

On March 25, at a celebration in Anambra State honoring Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s first year in office, Obasanjo said that Soludo, who had been a close economic advisor to him, “never misadvised me,” and that he had impressed him so much that he had been invited to head the apex bank.

He said that Soludo was the second CBN governor from Nigeria who wasn’t a commercial banker.

Obasanjo said that immediately after nominating Okonjo Iweala, he was faced with a dissident voice.

“Someone approached me and said, ‘Wow! You have destroyed Nigeria’s economy. How, I questioned. He said, “An Igbo guy, Governor of the Central Bank; an Igbo lady, Minister of Finance? Therefore it is evident that you have succeeded in wrecking Nigeria’s economy.

“Besides than what I may term Igbophobia, which I don’t take lightly, I have no idea why he said it. It continues; it endures. What do we do, though, with statements like those that were made to me and others that you are aware are occurring, as I just described them?

“I think we need to return to the Bible, which emphasizes that virtue must triumph over evil. And no matter who you are or where you are, you must befriend those who are terrified of you in order to gain their affection by treating them well, and that is what we must do, Obasanjo stated.

Okonjo-Iweala and Soludo were “perhaps the greatest of the nominations that I made while I was president,” he said.