Speaking with a delegation of Northern Elders Council led by Tanko-Yakasai at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday, president Goodluck Jonathan said some elder statesmen are nothing but ordinary politicians and motor park touts. Though he didn't mention names, it was pretty obvious he was referring to Obasanjo who threw flakes at him on Monday threw flakes at him on Monday while addressing notable market women.
“Some people call themselves statesmen but they are not statesmen, they are just ordinary politicians.
“For you to be a statesman, it is not because you have occupied a big office before but the question is what are you bringing to bear on the nation?
“Are you building this country? Or are you a part of the people who tell lies to destroy this country; to create enmity and make people who ordinarily would have been living together to fight themselves?
“Are you planning to set the country ablaze because you did not get that particular thing you want?
“At the appropriate time, Nigerians will know all of them even though I know most of such people. The younger ones do not know.
“Some people, including those with big names, are hiding under some clogs and creating a lot of problems in this country.
“They are making provocative statements that will set this country ablaze. How can someone tell me that such people are senior citizens. They are not senior citizens and they can never be. They are ordinary motor park touts.
“If you are a senior citizen, you will act like one. It is not because of the offices we occupy, it is by divine grace and providence that some of us occupy these offices. But what role are you playing to build this country?”
While rebutting claims that he is anti-north, he said due to his background, he believes that it is only education which can liberate individuals, so he has ordered that the new 9 Federal Universities be built in the North
“I used to tell Nigerians that I come from a background people refer to as the Talakawas; I come from that level and I am here today talking to Alhaji Jimeta because I went to school.
“And I said the only thing that can liberate an individual or a group of individuals is education. If I had not gone to school, I wouldn’t have been here to talk to big people like these.
“If you didn’t go to school, you wouldn’t have spoken the way you spoke, you would have looked for somebody to interpret. This is what I believe. I don’t play politics with it. It has been my policy that I don’t play politics with education.
“When I came on board, I said even though as a country we have the policy on paper, every state must get a Federal Government university.
“Out of the 12 federal universities created, nine of them are in the North while three are in southern Nigeria. The only three states that had no federal university were Bayelsa, Ebonyi and Ekiti.
“Those who were in charge of the university establishment were not fair. For us to liberate ourselves, we must go to school. If I hate the North, would I have done that?
“We talk about Almajiri education, we felt we must change. Luckily, we initiated it but now state governments are keying into it.
“I know that it was education that liberated me. I would have been a local canoe builder like my father and grandfather. But I am here because of education and I feel if we must liberate Nigerian children whether they are from Zamafara, Bayelsa, Kebbi or Delta state, they must be educated. I feel we must enter the North by aggression through education.
“I feel sad that our younger ones are beginning to see Nigeria as if we are so divided. A Nigeria that a Muslim and a Christian cannot sit down together.
“I was told that the driver of the late Prime Minister, Tafawa Balewa, was a Christian. Our people lived together in those days. Why not now that we have even modern ways of life?
“Any country that its citizens see themselves through their tiny tribal enclaves cannot go anywhere.”
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