A participant of the meeting between Igbo leaders and Oba of Lagos
state, has revealed that the monarch was merely joking with his
utterances and that none of the persons present took offense to his
words.
The person in question is a Lagos-based lawyer and industrialist,
Chukwudi Atueyi, who revealed to Vanguard what happened between Igbo
leaders and Oba Rilwan Akiolu.
Read below his account of events:
“All the Eze Ndi Igbo honorary in Lagos went to pay HRM
solidarity visit on Sunday and I was fortunate to be among those present
at the said meeting. What the Oba said was fully and simply directed to
only the Igbos present at the meeting who his majesty considers to be
very close to him and should understand him well enough.”
“You know when one talks to his very close friends and subjects, he
tends to be very free with them, so he was being very free with those
present at the meeting and wanted us to realize how serious and close he
takes us and our votes, because he cannot imagine us giving him our
words only to turn back and do the very opposite.”
“He did not force us to the meeting, we were the ones that went to
him on solidarity visit, so it would be very evil of us to only go and
deceive him there. He only jokingly (at least as it appeared to me then)
warned the people present at the meeting who he considers his own
people.
The said warning that we are supposed to be very conversant with
since we have all the “Ëze Ndi Igbo” present there, as that was not the
first time we visited him. We are all already aware of the Yoruba
culture and understood perfectly what he meant. There was no specific
place he referred to all the Igbos in Lagos.”
“He was only addressing the Igbos with him present there whom he
considers his own people and he simply observed his culture which we all
quite understood and this explains why there was applause and laughter
at the end of his speech. We were expected to, thereafter, talk to our
people in civilized manner to convince them and canvass for their votes
if we truly believe we are capable of doing so.”
“The tradition of lagoon water threat was directed only to those
present at the meeting as culture demands. Though he appeared serious
but we all understood it as a joke, that was why we all applauded him
and made fun of it there.”
“So I suspect serious politics at play here. I wouldn’t know who
recorded the speech and decided to play politics with it. It is most
unfair to his majesty to be portrayed in this manner and I think I owe
it as a duty to speak up before things get out of hand.”
