By Kingsley Moghalu
The online #IgboMustLeaveLagos campaign is hate, criminal speech. Our leaders need to take strong action against this kind of ethnic-cleansing propaganda similar to the Radio/TV Milles Collines demonisation of the Tutsi in Rwanda 30 years ago.
As a Political Affairs Officer at the United Nations Secretariat Headquarters in New York and Desk Officer for Rwanda, Angola and Somalia at the time, I helped in efforts to counter and stop the genocide, which sadly proved unsuccessful as a result of Great Power politics in the UN Security Council.
The genocide was ended only by the military victory achieved by the Rwanda Patriotic Army led by Paul Kagame. We later successfully prosecuted the architects of the genocide at the UN International Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania.
The Rwandan authorities also successfully ran the local gacaca community trials, and went on to rebuild their country to an enviable level. Not too long ago ago Nigerian state governors went to Rwanda to be taught the art of #GoodGovernance.
Nigerian leaders taking strong action against the #IgboMustLeaveLagos hate campaign would demonstrate that such hate has no place in our country.
Ethnic-identity supremacy has hobbled Nigeria’s potential as Africa’s most populous country, stymying both governance and the economy.
We have become like crabs who can’t move forward, only sideways or backwards. I commend Lagos State Governor Jide Sanwo-Olu for stepping out and calling for an end to this dangerous nonsense.
#StopHateSpeech
