Following his endorsement of the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, ahead of the election next month, former president Olusegun Obasanjo has been criticized by Comrade Issa Aremu, director general of the Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS), for no longer passing for a statesman.
Aremu called for new statesmanship and new citizenship to deepen the democratic process” in the nation during his two-hour annual walkout to celebrate his 62nd birthday at Kaduna’s Murtala Muhammed Square.
Family members, labor unionists, MINILS, Ilorin staff and management, senior Kaduna state government officials, and members of the Kaduna state chapter of the Alumni of National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, (AANI) Kuru Jos all showed up for the vibrant event.
In response to Obasanjo’s letter urging Nigerians to vote for Obi ahead of the February election, the two-term former vice president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and vice president of the Geneva-based Industriall Global Union said, “given the anti-labor credentials of OBJ in and out of power had further taken away what remains of the credibility of the Labour Party as the platform of working people, women, and the youths.”
He claims that the former president has a condition called “chronic withdrawal syndrome” that warrants sympathy from all Nigerians and that “OBJ’s letter, in spirit and content, amounts to how NOT to be a statesman.
Aremu stated, “Obasanjo’s problem is not just his age, but the age of his distracting unhelpful ideas with yesterday’s method of long verbose word counts, allegedly written by him but undoubtedly not believed by him.
He undermined the future of young people with his attempted third term ambition, repeated brinkmanship, and sit-tight mentality. “His long long latest verbosity called letter could not have been meant for the great Nigerian youths who prefer minimum honest word counts, but maximum wisdom.”
The labor leader claims that President Muhammadu Buhari, who permits vote counts in Anambra, Osun Edo, and Ekiti, is the only statesman left standing in Nigeria. Obasanjo, he claims, “trampled underfoot election results to favor himself even having the temerity to openly tear the membership of the party that took him from valley of death to mountain of the Presidency.”
Aremu recalled 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.
In contrast to what he called “daily fictions of despair about a great country with challenges of nation-building called Nigeria,” he stated that his “modest accomplishments and impact” over the previous 60 years as a non-state and state actor indicate that “Nigeria is work in progress.”
With 18 registered political parties, “vibrant two leading ones,” six presidential elections since 1999, and 96 million registered voters, Nigeria is the largest liberal democracy in Africa, said Aremu, sounding optimistic about the uninterrupted 24 years of democratic process.
But he noted that it was time to “quality-check” the democratic process by “inventing new statesmanship and new citizenship.”
Comrade Aremu praised the current political party campaigns, but he urged more debates about ideas for growth rather than for conquest by the candidates and their spokespeople. Aremu, a National Institute member who expressed optimism for the upcoming elections, noted that “all Nigerians are on the next ballots as much as the candidates,” adding that it is time for all Compatriots to rise for a free and fair contest.
“We must support a new democratic culture that permits unrestricted free discussion of issues. 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.
“The winner in the next election should govern according to the set of ideas most favored by the electorate and be willing to resign from office at the next election if his or her ideas do not persuade the electorate,” he wrote.
The celebrant had earlier referred to the Kaduna event as a “homecoming,” recalling his first 50th birthday jog in 2011 at the same location, and had added that three essential components of a healthy lifestyle are prayer, hard and intelligent work, and maintaining a healthy level of fitness.
Comrade Aremu praised the current political party campaigns, but he urged more debates about ideas for growth rather than for conquest by the candidates and their spokespeople. Aremu, a National Institute member who expressed optimism for the upcoming elections, noted that “all Nigerians are on the next ballots as much as the candidates,” adding that it is time for all Compatriots to rise for a free and fair contest.
