“I believe Obasanjo is not a fully-fledged Yoruba” – Fani-Kayode, gives reason

“I believe Obasanjo is not a fully-fledged Yoruba” – Fani-Kayode, gives reason

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The Director of Special Media Projects and Operations of the Bola Tinubu/Kashim Shettima Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), Femi Fani-Kayode, on Sunday said the ‘silence’ of former president Olusegun Obasanjo over a recent comment by popular Igbo businessman, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu who said Yoruba people are “political rascals”, shows the rumour “that his (Obasanjo’s) father was an Igbo may well be true”.

There are reports that Iwuanyanwu, in a trending video, said Igbo people had invested so much in Nigeria and that they were not going to yield to pressure of people asking them to leave. He also castigated Yoruba people.

The Igbo chieftain spoke in Awka, Anambra State, on Saturday for the celebration of Governor Charles Soludo’s One Year in Office, with Obasanjo among the dignitaries who graced the occasion.

Fani-Kayode who once worked under Obasanjo as Special Assistant on Public Affairs, and Minister of Culture and Tourism, said he was disappointed that the former Nigerian leader did not tackle Iwuanyanwu over his anti-Yoruba comments.

Fani-Kayode wrote on his verified Twitter handle: “The fact that our revered leader and one of the fathers of our nation, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, can sit there and say nothing when Chief (Dr.) Emmanuel Iwanyanwu, an elder statesman who I have always respected, describes the entire Yoruba race as “rascals” that the Igbo “will DEAL with” tells me that the rumour that he is NOT a fully-fledged Yoruba man and that his father was an Igbo may well be true.

“Whatever the case this is not the OBJ I once knew, loved, defended and worked so hard for. Something has gone wrong. No-one could have made a statement against ANY tribe in the presence of the old OBJ that we all knew and respected and got away with it. He would have got up and told them off.

“As for Iwanyanwu I will not respond to him or to all those that were at that event and that collectively rubbished our people because they are my in-laws and because my four sons are half Igbo.