Saturday PUNCH has gathered that the protest against Nigerians living in Ghana may have been triggered by the public declaration of a Nigerian national, Chukwudi Ihenetu, as the “Eze Ndi Igbo” (king of Igbos) in Ghana.
Saturday PUNCH gathered that though Ihenetu made the declaration during an interview in 2013, the video of the interview, however, resurfaced a few weeks ago, sparking outrage from many Ghanaians.
In the four-minute-long video seen by our correspondent, Ihenetu, a businessman based in Ghana, revealed that he had acquired 50 acres of land in Ghana to build an Igbo Village, which, according to him, would consist of a market, a guest house, Eze Ndigbo palace, a 2,000-capacity town hall and streets named after Igbo leaders.
“I’m creating an Igbo village which has never happened in the history of Igbos in the world. As I’m talking to you, I have acquired 50 acres of land, which is 250 plots of land along the Aflao road in the Old Ningo area. The reason for acquiring this land is to build an Igbo village in Ghana, which I call Ama Ndigbo in Ghana.
“We will build the village, and in this village, we are going to build the palace of Eze Igbo, a huge palace. We will build an Igbo town hall with about 2,000 and a 100-room guest house. The essence of this guest house is to accommodate our governors and other Igbo great leaders when they come to Ghana with their entourage. We will also accommodate some of our people who have accommodation,” Ihenetu said.
He added, “In the village, we will create streets that will represent the names of ancient Igbos, like Sam Mbakwe, Nnamdi Azikiwe, my father and other great leaders of Igbo that have gone and those that are present.
“In this village, every Igbo man all over the world will come and buy property, whether you want a plot or two plots of land to build your dream house. We will build Igbo market, school and Eze Igbo garden, and from there Igbo people will expand.”
Following the outrage generated by his declaration, Ihenetu was invited by Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa.
According to Ablakwa, Ihenetu apologised to the government and people of Ghana, assuring that he has long abandoned that idea and has not purchased any piece of land for that purpose.
“As I emphasised in the meeting, Ghana is exceptionally proud of its celebrated friendly foreign policy, which is welcoming of all to our beautiful and peaceful country, particularly Africans and people of African descent. We are determined to keep championing that Pan-African identity, for which we have attained global renown,” Ablakwa was quoted as saying.
In his apology video, Ihenetu said, “We have no single land that we want to develop as an Igbo village in Ghana, as far as I’m concerned now. And honestly, the vision of that particular land did not hold, and I abandoned it long ago.”(Punch)
