After the governorship election in Nigeria, the All Progressives Congress (APC) is doing everything to ensure the Igbo extracts in Lagos do not pose another threat to their winning streak in the future.
On Sunday evening, Bayo Onanuga, the spokesperson for Bola Tinubu Presidential Campaign Council, warned Igbos in Lagos not to interfere in Lagos politics.
His statement via his Twitter page marked another escalation of the coldness and division between the APC and most Igbos in Lagos State.
Onanuga tweeted, “Let 2023 be the last time of Igbo interference in Lagos politics,” adding, “Let there be no repeat in 2027.”
Mr Onanuga is considered one of Mr Tinubu’s top aides once sworn in as the President. His tweet will further validate the position of the Igbos, who thought they had been intimidated since the election campaign started.
The APC man added, “Lagos is like Anambra, Imo, any Nigerian state. It is not No Man’s Land, not Federal Capital Territory. It is Yoruba land. Mind your business.”
It is still being determined if Mr Tinubu has the same view as his would-soon-be-aide. However, in 2019, before the general election, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, wife of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, said the Igbos “were proving difficult despite the love shown to them.”
She threatened, “we will entreat all the deities of Lagos to chase Igbo people out. Ibgo, who didn’t marry Yoruba, we will inherit them. Given how much we love Igbo, we now want to spoil everything.
“You are not the only tribe in this place, Hausa are here, we accommodate them, Calabar is here, we accommodate them. But Igbo is proving difficult. We will inherit you. Despite the love, we have for you… others are here and we accommodated them.”
The leader of the Lagos Motorparks management committee, Mr Akinsanya, popularly called MC MC Oluomo, a man handpicked by Mr Tinubu for the position, has on different occasions threatened Igbos in Lagos to vote for APC or state at home.
“We have begged them. If they don’t want to vote for us, it is not a fight. Tell them, mama Chukwudi, if you don’t want to vote for us, sit down at home. Sit down at home,” MC Oluomo said.
There were a series of videos where Oluomo and his team threatened Igbos, and in one case, transporters were forced to buy stickers to promote Mr Tinubu’s candidacy,
On the Presidential election day, February 25, MC Oluomo was seen at polling units warning the Igbos not to vote if they planned to vote for anyone other than Mr Tibubu and his political party.
Lagos is a central hub where people across the country come searching for opportunities, and many Igbos have made Lagos their home. But this migration has brought tension to the Yorubas, who feel threatened by the growing Igbo population in Lagos State and their political influence.
Political candidates haven’t made matters easy as during campaigns; politicians played the ethnic cards to garner votes which believers and supporters of the APC in the state have now fueled.
