*conferred with Igbo chieftaincy title
Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose has declared that in the event that Nigeria disintegrates, only the Igbo nation can survive because of the industry and resilience of its people.
Fayose stated this yesterday when the Ndigbo Community in Ekiti conferred him with the traditional title of ‘Nwanne Di Na Mba 1 of Ndigbo’ at the Olukayode Stadium, Ado Ekiti during the Igbo Cultural Day.
The governor also boasted that there has been no politically motivated killing of anyone under his administration.
He condemned those he called fake political leaders who are only accessible to the people when they are looking for votes only to buy bullet proof cars and erect artificial walls around themselves so that they would not be accessible to the people after the poll.
He said, “whatever anybody says, the Igbos are a unique people in the country. God forbid, if Nigeria should break, they are the only nation that can survive because they are industrious people.
“All the permanent structures found everywhere are owned by the Igbo people. Wherever you go in the country, you will find an Igbo man there.
“No Igbo man can vote for any other party in Ekiti State except the party I belong to because we are bonded with one another”, he said.
The governor lamented that women have been relegated in the scheme of things, but assured that the people that his administration would provide for them in the 2017 budget of Ekiti State.
Earlier in his address, the President-General of Ndigbo Community in South West, Chief Nathaniel Ezeonu, said the Igbo people in Ekiti State want to have their own market.
He added that the traders want to acquire an uncompleted market along Poly Road in Ado Ekiti which the state government has pegged at N380 million.
He pleaded with Governor Fayose to rescind the decision to shut down Fayose Market believed to be populated by Igbo traders selling telephone handsets and accessories.
Ezeonu said that the the theme of the Cultural Day – Ndigbo and Socio-economic Reality in Nigeria, Which way Forward – was apt because Igbos have contributed more to the economic development of the country.
To mark the occasion, major shops owned by the Igbos in the state capital were under lock and key.
Those present at the conferment of the traditional title on the governor included the state Executive Council members, local government chairmen as well as traditional rulers in Ekiti and Igbo land.
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