OBJ’s letter lacks statesmanship —Issa Aremu

Issa Aremu, the director general of the Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies, MINILS, in Ilorin, Kwara State, has called for true statesmanship to deepen the country’s democratic process, claiming that former President Obasanjo is no longer qualified to serve as a stateman as a result of his most recent contentious letter.

Aremu stated that it was time for “quality control of the democratic process, via reinvention of new statesmanship and new citizenship” during a two-hour annual walkout to celebrate his 62nd birthday at Murtala Muhammed Square in Kaduna.

Aremu, who objected to the letter written by former President Olusegun Obasanjo urging Nigerians to support Peter Obi for president in the upcoming election in February, claimed that “given the anti-labor credentials of OBJ in and out of power, he had further taken away what remains of the credibility of the Labour Party as the platform of working people, women, and the youths.”

In both spirit and substance, OBJ’s letter is an example of how not to be a statesman. The former president experiences chronic withdrawal syndrome, which should make all Nigerians feel sorry for him. Obasanjo’s difficulty is not just his age, but also the age of his useless, distracting ideas and the verbose writing style of the past, which he claims to have written but does not actually believe.

His most recent letter, which was extremely lengthy and verbose, could not have been intended for the wonderful Nigerian youth, who prefer wise writing with few words. President Muhammadu Buhari, who permits vote counts in Anambra, Osun, Edo, and Ekiti, is the only statesman left in Nigeria. In contrast, former President Olusegun Obasanjo trampled election results under his feet in order to advance his own interests and even had the audacity to publicly sever party ties after leading him from the valley of death to the mountain of the Presidency.

Aremu remembered Benjamin Disraeli’s remark that “The world is weary of statesmen (such as Obasanjo) whom democracy has degraded into politicians.” Disraeli served as Prime Minister of Great Britain twice.

While praising the ongoing campaigns of all political parties, he urged greater debates of ideas for growth rather than conquest by candidates and their spokespeople.

Kuru Jos, a member of the National Institute, said that Aremu, who is also optimistic about the upcoming elections, said that “all Nigerians are on the next ballots as much as the candidates, adding that it’s time for all Compatriots to rise for free and fair competition.

We must support a new democratic culture that permits unrestricted free discussion of topics. Institutionalized conflict takes the form of the democratic debate. But in this constructive disagreement, it should be ideas rather than people. Instead of shooting each other with missiles, let’s have a constructive discussion about how to build on the good work that President Buhari has done to improve security, electricity, the railways, budgetary year cycle discipline, ambitious public spending, conditional transfers to education, health, and poverty alleviation, and significant infrastructure investment.