Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has decried the enduring hatred towards people from the country’s southeastern part, which he calls Igbophobia. During an event in Anambra State celebrating the first anniversary of Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s administration, Obasanjo recounted his experiences working with Soludo and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the current Director General of the World Trade Organization during his tenure as president from 1999 to 2007.
Obasanjo praised Soludo, his economic adviser, saying that the professor of economics always gave him good advice. Obasanjo was so impressed with Soludo’s work that he appointed him as the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, making him the second CBN governor who was not a commercial banker.
However, Obasanjo also revealed that he encountered resistance to his appointments of Soludo and Okonjo-Iweala from a dissenting voice. The person in question said to Obasanjo, “An Igbo woman, Minister of Finance; an Igbo man, Governor of the Central Bank? Then you have completed the task of ruining the economy of Nigeria.” Obasanjo interpreted this statement as Igbophobia and expressed his disapproval of the sentiment.
Obasanjo’s comments highlight the persistence of negative attitudes towards people of Igbo extraction in Nigeria. Despite progress in the country’s economic and political spheres, such attitudes remain a cause for concern.
