The rate of xenophobic messages during this election has been so high that many Nigerians are now calling for calm to prevent the country slipping into violent attacks by different ethnic groups in the country.
Strange enough, the spokesman of Bola Tinubu, President-elect and candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Bayo Onanuga has joined in the fray of those issuing threat to Igbo living in Lagos state, because they are not supporting the party.
Onanuga, a journalist and former Editor in chief of The News has not joined xenophobes such as Musiliu Akinsanya aka Oluomo, who, few days to the govrnorship and House of Assembly election, warned south eat indigenes who were not prepared to vote APC to avoid polling centers.
Akinsanya, an associate of Tinubu has since apologised after trenchant criticism from not a few Nigerians, saying he didn’t mean what he said.
But Onanuga has touched what many Nigerians regard as red herring, and raised the bar in the manner he sent his xenophobic message to Igbo living in Lagos, according to analysts who are unhappy with the way politicians are trying to divide Nigerians, and raise ethnic tensions via their careless comments.
Onanuga, who is the director of media and publicity of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, issued the warning in a tweet via his official Twitter account, @aonanuga1956.
He said, “Let 2023 be the last time of Igbo interference in Lagos politics. Let there be no repeat in 2027. Lagos is like Anambra, Imo, any Nigerian state. It is not No Man’s Land, not Federal Capital Territory. It is Yoruba land. Mind your business.”
