Some Statesmen are Ordinary Men Based on Their Utterances - Jonathan

 Hitting back at his critics, President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday said some  Nigerians tagging themselves as statesmen are “ordinary politicians” considering their utterances.

According to him, having occupied an elective office as a politician does not make such person  a statesman.

Jonathan stated this when he hosted a delegation of the Northern Elders Council (NEC) at  the Presidential Villa.

He said politicians making provocative utterances to cause disaffection and bring the country down are not worthy to be called statesmen.

Jonathan noted that such politicians engaged in such trade because they do not get what they want.

He stressed that a lot of lies had been told about his administration to paint him black, saying Nigerians would soon know who the true statesmen  are.

“Let me join the vice-president to welcome you today and to tell you that we sincerely appreciate what you are doing in the country because we have been monitoring all you have been doing.

“I also believe a team must think about key things, how people will live together in unity, how are we ensuring that there is peace around us. Because without peace, without unity, there can never be development.

“I feel sad that our younger ones are beginning to see  Nigeria as if we are so divided. A Nigeria who is a Muslim and a Christian cannot seat down together. I was told that even the driver of Tafawa Balewa was a Christian.

“Our people lived together in those days why not now that we have even modern ways of life. Our children leave us and go abroad they stay together and do a lot of things together.

“But when we come back home,  we begin to build walls, this is a southerner, this is a northerner, this is a Muslim, this is a Christian, this is a Yoruba man, this is an Hausa man, this is an Ijaw man, this is a Nupe man. Is that the way we are going to develop our country?

“America is great today because it is made up of various cultural groups, everybody made America because ethnic lines have been so weakened that people think about America.

“And that is why America is great today. Any country that begins to see themselves through their tiny tribal enclaves cannot go anywhere.

“If today I’m sick and the best doctor that can treat me is from Zamfara or  Enugu or  Ekiti States, they will bring that doctor to treat me.  They will not ask if that doctor is an Ijaw man, Ogbia or any other tribe.

“And until we get to that level where we begin to use people based on their  competences, yes they must be spread in political appointments and so on, but until we get to that level where we don’t discriminate based on primordial privileges that of course will be the beginning of our development.

“And that is what we stand for. I will continue to plead with you because from all of your activities you have been advocating for that,” he said.

Jonathan said: “Some people say Jonathan hates the North. I have heard that statement and I use to ask Namadi Sambo, they say I hate the North but you are here. I asked the National Security Adviser and my Principal Secretary the same thing.  In fact, my principal secretary has been with me since I was the deputy governor. I never knew he was going to come here as vice-president not to talk of president.

“But I have known him since I was the deputy governor of Bayelsa State. My Chief Detail, Yusuf, from Borno State has been with me since I was a deputy governor in Bayelsa and I see him as a good person and I have carried him along. So I had to ask how can somebody wake up and say I hate the North?

“I used to tell Nigerians I come from the downtrodden, what you call the talakawas, I come from that level  and I am here today talking to Alhaji Jemeta 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 didn’t go to school, I wouldn’t have been here to talk to big people like this.”