THE OBA'S RIOT ACT

Oba Rilwan Akiolu

The Oba of Lagos, has displayed his hidden xenophobia by reading the riot act to some so-called Igbo Leaders in Lagos state who paid him a courtesy in his palace. He warned that he will make life unbearable for them if they sabotage efforts being made to ensure that the governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode emerges as the next governor of the state. The monarch reasoned that the support of Ndigbo for the now opposition party (PDP) could frustrate current efforts being made to ensure that Lagos was no longer in opposition with the Federal Government. The details of the pronouncement are as follows:

Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode

"On Saturday, if anyone of you goes against Ambode, who I picked, that is your end. If it does not happen within seven days, just know that I am a bastard and it is not my father who gave birth to me. By the grace of God, I am the owner of Lagos for the time being. This is an undivided chair. The palace belongs to the dead and those coming in the future. On Saturday, if anyone of you, I swear in the name of God, goes against my wish that Ambode will be the next governor of Lagos state, the person is going to die inside this water. For the Igbo and others in Lagos, they should go where the Oba of Lagos heads to. When they were coming to the state, they did not come with all their houses. But now, they have properties in the state. So they must do my bidding, And that is the bidding of the ancestors of Lagos and God. I am not ready to beg you. Nobody knew how I picked Ambode. Jimi is my blood relation and I told him that he could never be governor in Lagos for now. The future belongs to God. I am not begging anybody, but what you people cannot do in Onitsha, Aba or anywhere you cannot do it here"

Mr. Jimi Agbaje

If this statement is truly coming from the Oba who is a very respected monarch especially in this part of Nigeria, then there is really need for every true democrat and progressive to be worried. Is this what the "Nigerian type of democracy" has degenerated to?  What kind of government do you expect from someone who has been handpicked?  Is it right to blatantly blackmail people with juju into voting for a particular candidate in a general election in a democracy?

And come to think of it, how did the Igbo people suddenly become so important in Lagos state? This is considering all the injustices meted out to them in different parts of the country including Lagos state over the years including the "deportation" saga of 2013 when some Nigerian citizens of Igbo Extraction were termed 'destitute' and forcefully removed from Lagos state to their home state of Anambra.

It will be interesting to hear what the APC has to say about this especially through their spokesman Alhaji Lai Mohammed who always has some reponse for every sneeze and cough of the opposition.

It might also interest his majesty to know that the Igbos unlike other tribes in Nigeria are free spirited individuals who do not really pay strict obeisance to any monarchy. So the riot act may well have been read out to a bunch of people without any influence on the individual choices of Ndigbo in Lagos.