So-called statesmen creating problems, says GEJ

President Goodluck Jonathan has described statesmen who make utterances capable of creating disunity in the country as “ordinary politicians”.

Alleging that “some people are hiding under big names to create lots of problems”, Jonathan said that at the appropriate time, Nigerians would know the actual situation of thing.

Jonathan was speaking on Wednesday when a delegation of the Northern Elders Council (NEC) visited him at the presidential lodge.

“Some people, including those with big names, are hiding under some clogs and creating a lot of problems in this country,” he said.

“They are making provocative statements that will set this country ablaze. They parade themselves as statesmen but they are not statesmen; they are just ordinary politicians. Being a statesman is not because you have occupied a big office before but the question is: What are you bringing to bear?

“Are you building this country or are you a part of people who tell lies to destroy this country and to create enmity between people who ordinarily would have been living together?

“Are you planning to set the country ablaze because you did not get that particular thing you want?

“How can someone tell  me that such people are  senior citizens. They are not  senior citizens and they can never be. If you are a senior citizen, you will act like one.

“At the appropriate time, Nigerians will know all of them even though I know most of such people; but the younger ones do not know.”

He promised the northern elders that he would do his best to develop that part of the country, saying: “Some people say Jonathan hates the north; I have heard that statement and I tell Namadi Sambo: They say I hate the north but you are here as my vice-president’.

“I tell the national security adviser and my principal secretary the same thing. In fact, my principal secretary (Hassan Tukur) has been my friend since I was deputy governor of Bayelsa.

“My chief detail, Yusuf, is from Borno and has been with me in Yenagoa since I was a deputy governor. I see him as a good person and I have carried him along with me. So I had to ask how can somebody wake up and say I hate the north.”

The president said that out of the 12 new federal universities established by his administration, nine were in the north while only three were in the south.

Jonathan said his government also initiated Almajiri education in the north to bring the region at par with the south in terms of education development.

“I feel we must enter the north with aggression through education,” he said.

“Whenever the statistics of school dropouts in the country is released, I’m not happy. The percentage from states in the north is sometimes as high as 50 and even more.

“The last one was up to 70 per cent. I said no, we must change this statistics.

“Somebody who hates the people cannot talk about educating their children because the people we are educating are the future leaders of this country.”