A former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Bode George, has described the recent proposed protest asking Igbo people to leave Lagos and other Southwestern states as arrant nonsense.
George, who is a Lagos indigene, spoke on the sidelines of an interactive session with the media on the State of the Nation, held at his office in Ikoyi.
According to him, those spreading such hateful campaigns were not Lagos indigenes but people who came from neighbouring states and were accommodated in the state.
George recalled that former President, Nnamdi Azikwe, who is of Igbo extraction, became the political son of his great grand uncle, Sir Herbert Macaulay.
He said that Azikwe, the first President of Nigeria, had joined Macaulay in the nationalism struggles before Obafemi Awolowo and his group arrived from the UK.
He said, “It is nonsense. I say it is arrant nonsense. Why should we be saying that the Igbo people should leave? We have grown with them here. I had known them. We played local football together.
“I think those who are proposing or talking about it are not Lagos indigenes themselves.
“In Lagos, we welcome traders. Bring your wares, we look at it, we buy it, you make your money, we give you land to build. That is the culture of Lagos. Those who are proposing this nonsense have no bearing, no family connection to Lagos.
“I am saying it as a Lagosian. It is arrant stupidity. Why would you tell them to leave? They pay their taxes.”
