At a time when the whole of Africa and the rest of the world is celebrating Nelson Mandela, who President Barack Obama described as the ‘giant of history,’ a story of despair, disunity, bad governance sprang up in Nigeria as a result of former president Olusegun Obsanjo’s letter to President Goodluck Jonathan, casting the nation in bad light.
Reactions continue to trail the revelation of the 18 page letter which accused the Presidency of incompetence among many other shortcomings.
Speaking on Sunrise Daily on Thursday, the Vice President of the National Labour Congress, Isaa Aremu, said that the letter made him feel ‘diminished as a Nigerian.’
“Whether you take the reaction of the presidency or the letter itself, certainly this is not a good story about Nigeria,” he added.
He said that the story was made worse by the fact that it was coming from a former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, a member of the PDP to which President Jonathan belongs, who had helped the current administration get into power, is the author of the letter which levels strong allegations against the incumbent president and portends an unpleasant story for the entire continent.
“Several issues raised in the letter including oil theft, lack of accountability and corruption have been debated by Nigerians, hence Obasanjo only increased the ‘noise level,’” Aremu said.
He pointed out that famed handshake of Raul Castro and President Obama at the Mandela Memorial indicated that leaders of the world were imbibing Mandela’s virtues and were building bridges but said that the case was different in Nigeria.
Aremu called on President Jonathan to respond to all the allegations raised by the former president. He also called on Mr Obasanjo to share in the blame for all the problems of the nation.
“What should worry us (Nigerians) including Obasanjo is that the party he left for us including those people he recommended for us put us have put the country in this mess.”
Aremu said it was high time the leaders apologised to the citizens while Nigerians should rise to the occasion and change their story.