I APPOINTED IGBOS TO RUN AFFAIRS DURING MY TENURE AND THEY DID WELL — OBASANJO

Igbo were appointed by me to be the central bank governor and finance minister, and they didn't wreck the Nigerian economy, according to former president Obasanjo.

Olusegun Obasanjo, the former president, claimed on Saturday that despite numerous criticisms, his choice of Prof. Chukwuma Soludo and Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to head the nation's economy was one of his best appointments during that time.

At a celebration honoring Anambra State Governor Chukwuma Soludo's one-year term, Obasanjo made this statement and denounced the "persistent" prejudice against people of southeast Asian descent, or Igbophobia.

Soludo led the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Okonjo-Iweala served as his minister of finance during Obasanjo's administration, which spanned from 1999 to 2007.

The former president claimed that Soludo, an economic advisor who collaborated closely with him, "never misadvised me," and whose accomplishments so impressed the former president that he asked him to lead the central bank.

The 85-year-old statesman claimed that Soludo was the second CBN governor of Nigeria not to have worked for a commercial bank.

The former president, however, claimed that soon after appointing the professor, he heard dissenting opinions.

Someone approached me and said, "Wow," the man said. The Nigerian economy is in ruins thanks to you. I asked, "How?" He responded, "With an Igbo woman serving as minister of finance and an Igbo man as governor of the central bank, you have successfully ruined Nigeria's economy.". ’.

"Except for what I can call Igbophobia, which I don't take lightly, I have no idea why he said that. It endures; it continues. However, what do you do when something like that, as I just described, is said to you or something you know is happening?

"I think we need to turn to the Scriptures again, which says that good must triumph over evil. We must do this, Obasanjo said. "And whoever you are, wherever people are afraid of you, you must make yourself friendly to those who are afraid of you and earn their friendship by being good to them.

From his own experience, the former president said that being friendly is the best way to win friends.

The appointments of Okonjo-Iweala and Soludo, he continued, were "probably the best ones I made while I was president. ”.