The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, has stated that the Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Drainage and Water Resources, Joe Igbokwe, is being persecuted for loving ‘Buhari to bits’.
Adesina made this known in his latest article titled: “Joe Ogbokwe: When It’s a crime to love Buhari, Nigeria” on Thursday.
The presidential spokesman noted that Igbokwe is being a nationalist as he stressed that he is not just a lover of President Muhamadu Buhari alone but he loves Nigeria and the Igbo land.
He added that Igbokwe’s life has been severely threatened before his country home in Nnewi was set on fire on October 3.
In the article, he wrote, “We were talking of Joe Igbokwe before the brief diversion. Yes, this man loves Buhari to bits. He loves Nigeria, and he loves his native Igbo land. And you know what? That is now a crime in our country. Igbokwe’s life has been severely and severally threatened, his family hounded, and on October 3 this year, his county home in Nnewi was set on fire.
“Igbokwe is a nationalist. His education, primary, secondary and even university he had in the Southeast. But since he got posted for national service in Ogun State in 1985, he had remained in the Southwest, identifying with the people, their politics, their ways of life, while not repudiating his love for his roots in Nnewi, and the Southeast generally. No wonder he is popularly called Agbalanze, after that Onitsha cultural association.
“Igbokwe loves Igbo land. Yes, don’t we all love where we come from? Shouldn’t we? We should, we must, before we can even be good Nigerians. When strange things began to happen in the Southeast, people being decapitated, public buildings being torched, and security agents being murdered in cold blood, Igbokwe stood against it. Mum was the word from majority of the leaders of the region, but for Igbokwe, the man dies in him who keeps quiet in the face of tyranny. He spoke out.
“He stood by his conviction, speaking out against separatism and an attempt to balkanize the country. At the risk of so much, he opted for one Nigeria.
“He kept saying building bridges across the length and breadth of the country was the way to go, particularly for Igbo renaissance. He refused to join those who were retreating into ethnic cocoon, and stood for nationalism. It is either Nigeria or nothing! The man earned earned my deep respect. He stood for what was right, fair and just, for centripetal, rather than centrifugal forces in the country.”
While hailing Igbokwe for standing by what he believes, Femi Adesina stated that some of those that supported Buhari in the past have left to join the opposition.
