The Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu, has said the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, will never condone ethnic slurs and attacks on Igbos.
In an interview on Arise News on Tuesday, Okechukwu said the ethnic slurs and inciting comments made by the two spokespersons of the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, Femi Fani-Kayode and Bayo Onanuga, do not represent Tinubu’s views.
The VON boss also condemned the comments by Onanuga and Fani-Kayode, saying that he has lived in the South West for five years without encountering any issues with the Yorubas.
He said: “For somebody like myself, I lived 35 years in the North and 29 years in the South East and five years in the South West. Will I today start condensing a Northerner? The paper that brought me to Abuja was signed by a Yoruba man.
“So I’ll now castigate the Yorubas? Or the Hausa people who are my close friends? It’s condemnable that instead of telling people what our government has achieved…they don’t even know what we’ve achieved. Instead of canvassing it they’re engaging in premodal sentiments. It’s very unfortunate.
“I can’t support that. Yesterday, Obama went to Ghana and today Kamala Harris has gone to Ghana. Let’s begin to look back, why are we being spurned? If you spurn yourself you are about to be spurned. So I’ll never encourage the rascality. The president-elect that I know does not reflect such statements.
“I don’t think that’s what they’re saying…after all if you know my friend Fani-Kayode he came from the PDP. So, these are some of those people who transferred[from the PDP to APC]. So, I don’t think his statements reflect Asiwaju’s own position.”
Recall that Onanuga had warned Igbos against interfering with politics in Lagos state following the conclusion of the governorship election.
He wrote via his how Twitter handle: ”2023 should be the last time Igbos interfere in Lagos politics. Lagos State belongs to Yoruba.”
Also, Fani-Kayode has also been accused of making offensive comments and ethnic profiling which have even come to the knowledge of the British High Commission in Nigeria.