Despite the Igbo's willingness to accommodate them, Alhaji Ademola Okeleye, the president general of the Yoruba community in Anambra State, has expressed regret that his people have chosen not to purchase land there.
The problem Yoruba people have is their belief that they will not stay in the state for a long time, which is why many of them do not acquire landed property like Igbo people do in other parts of the country, according to Okeleye, a chartered accountant who has run an audit firm in Anambra State for the past 20 years.
However, he claimed that it is still possible since his people have recognized the need of investing in the nation.
He asserts that the stereotype that Igbo people are unfriendly to outsiders is untrue, pointing out that Yoruba voters backed and cast ballots for the candidates of their choice in the most recent general election without facing any harassment.
He claimed that individuals who believed the election to be a do-or-die affair in some regions of the nation had forgotten that politics is a game played by politicians and questioned why regular citizens would allow themselves to be used to sow division in the nation.
He said: “There are over 500000 Yoruba people living in Anambra State and nobody harasses them for any reason. The problem many Yoruba people have is that what they come into the state, they think they will not stay long, but many of them have ended up marrying Igbo women and settling down permanently.
“And unlike the impression in some quarters that most Yoruba people in the state are artisans and tailors, the truth is that many of them teach in the universities and polytechnics and own businesses across the major cities in the state.
“Many Yoruba people were born in Anambra and they speak Igbo fluently. It is therefore not true that Igbo people are not accommodating”.
He urged on other ethnic groups to imitate the former director of protocol to former Governor Willie Obiano, Chief Uzuegbunam Okagbue, for his ability to make Yoruba people feel at home whenever a need arose.
