KANO — Elder statesman Salihu Abubakar Tanko Yakasai, yesterday, berated former President Olusegun Obasanjo over his constant criticisms of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
In a statement, yesterday, in Kano, entitled, ‘My opinion on the recent democracy day celebration in Nigeria,’ he condemned Obasanjo for attacking the sitting President openly without exploiting several other options.
Yakasai’s reaction came on the heels of recent remarks by Obasanjo at an economic summit organised at the instance of Jigawa State Government in Dutse, the state capital, where Obasanjo was quoted as saying that “you can help someone to get a job but you cannot help that person do the job.”
The former liaison officer to ex-President Shehu Shagari in the Second Republic, described Obasanjo’s comment as a “unpalatable.”
He stressed that “using such a highly enlightened forum to underrate the achievement of the Jonathan administration, especially in the area of macro economic growth, is unfair.”
He stated that “as a patriotic Nigerian, a Democracy Day celebration is hardly a suitable occasion for any making a personal attack on his country’s leader whatever differences that exist between them.”
Yakasai asked Obasanjo to borrow a leaf from the First Republic politicians who “despite our differences with NPC leaders, NEPU leaders and members of the opposition, “never took our political differences with Sir Ahmadu Bello to the level of attacking his personality.”
Yakasai decried what he called Obasanjo’s unforgiving spirit whenever he had cause to disagree with anyone, saying that “Obasanjo’s method of disagreement with people is sometimes regarded as a matter of life and death.”
The elder statesman added that “people close to him say whenever General Obasanjo disagrees with a person, he would carry the fight to his place of worship, to his dining table and sometimes he will even be fighting the person in his dream.”
He therefore advised Obasanjo to pursue his political differences with the sitting Commander in Chief with “decorum, tolerance and states manly standard, stressing that, “this is the most honourable path for a man of his stature.”


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Let's hope the APE will listen to these words of advice.