Nwodo Okwesilieze, a former governor of Enugu State, has generated controversy on social media by asserting that the Igbo people are the originators of Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Kaduna, and other regions of the nation. CONTINUE FULL READING>>>>>
In a recent interview, Okwesilieze claimed that the Igbo people were being neglected in Nigeria and that things might have progressed more quickly and better if the nation had chosen to make constructive use of the Igbo people.
He said, “If they allowed the Igbos to thrive and to influence others positively, rather than hounding them wherever they are, I think the country would have developed faster and better.
“Igbos created Lagos, Igbos created Abuja, Igbos created Kaduna, Kaduna, most of the country, Port Harcourt. When you have such people, it is for the country to use them to the country’s advantage, and not only to suppress them.”
Discussing the claim by Dr Okwesilieze, Arise TV anchor Oseni Rufai described Okwesilieze’s statement as a “fallacy of hasty generalization.”
He said that it is true that the Igbos made significant impact on the economic development of Lagos, but that it is wrong for Okwesilieze to say that the Igbos created Lagos.
Rufai said that the creation of Lagos State to what it is today is due to the contribution of different nationalities and not just the Igbos.
He said, “I understand the talk about marginalization and all of that, but also he made a mistake, it’s called the fallacy of hasty generalization. The Igbos, yes, made tremendous impact on the economic landscape of Lagos. Post-colonial days, the likes of the Ojukwu’s father and everything, but there were other groups also that made impacts, so they didn’t entirely create it. It was a potpourri of many groups.”
He said that the Germans also played a huge role in the economic development of Lagos, when they were dealing on palm oil which they used in making lubricants. He said that the British and others played their parts too. CONTINUE FULL READING>>>>>
