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Nigera Founding Fathers Should Be Blamed For Poor Job – Jonathan

Published

2 years ago

September 5, 2023

Editor

Former President Goodluck Jonathan, has said while Nigeria’s founding fathers deserve credit for the struggle for independence and victory which followed, they should share in the blame for doing a poor job at nation building subsequently.

Jonathan said this in his remarks during a national dialogue and public presentation of 21 books, held in honour of Prof. Udenta Udenta, as part of activities to mark his 60th birthday, in Abuja, on Tuesday.

The former Nigerian leader who served as chairman of the occasion, likened the celebrant who authored all of the 21 books to former Tanzanain president, Julius Nyerere, whom he said championed Tanzanaian nationhood.

He said unlike Nyerere; Nigerian founding fathers paid greater emphasis on ethnic and identity politics at the expense of building Nigeria into a cohesive nation.

Jonathan said, “Have we been able to convince ourselves whether we are a state or a nation? If we are a country and a state, how do we become a nation?

“I am not blaming our founding fathers but they failed to integrate us into a proper nation. They operated as individuals and so on.

“Of course, if you have read some of the comments of our former leaders, someone like (Obafemi) Awolowo made it very clear that there was no nation called Nigeria. That it is a geographical entity, it is a country, it is a state, it has laws but there is no nation.

“The country was so polarized especially during the early political party formation and the parties were regional parties.

“There was no sense of commitment to integrate Nigeria into an entity that you can say yes, this is a nation with core values, common philosophy and people will be patriotic to that nation.

“Most of the parties that time belonged to regions and there were no alliances for the purpose of ruling the country.

“When I compare Nigeria and a country like Tanzania, I feel that Julius Nyerere made his vision clear to make Tanzania a nation. They have different tribes, maybe not as many as Nigeria but one nation was at the height of his thoughts.”

The Nigerian President explained that like Nigeria, Tanzania is made up predominantly of Muslims and Chirstians.

He further stated that in spite of the numerical strength and popularity of the two faiths, President Nyerere was able to champion a one party state to prevent political parties dissolving into their ethnic and religious cocoons as he worked hard with other nationalists to build Tanzania into the nation is has become.

Jonathan said, “He (Nyerere) made sure that every person from Tanzania speaks that (one) language, those who go to primary, secondary and tertiary schools quickly adhered to this as Nyerere made education compulsory.

“So, you hardly see somebody who didn’t get at least basic knowledge of the language in what we call the first nine years of school education. At that level, you communicate in Swahili.”

Ex-President Jonathan recalled that his modest attempt at nation building was the driving force behind the 2014 national conference which was designed to addressed some of the fault lines that have kept Nigerians apart.

He expressed confidence that if the recommendations of the 2014 conference were not only adopted but implemented, “We will not say we have a country called Nigeria, we will not say we have a state called Nigeria, we will also say we have a nation called Nigeria.”

Former Ministet of Solid Minerals and Ex-Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, a Cheiftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress, in his remarks confessed that although President Jonathan was right in his attempt to remove fuel subsidies, the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, which he (Fayemi) was part of mobilised Nigerians against it for political reasons.

He said the ‘Occupy Nigeria’ protest which grounded the country was part of strategies employed by the opposition to make the ruling PDP unpopular. He describe the antics of the opposition then as part of politics.

Fayemi said, “Today, I read former president Olusegun Obasanjo’s interview saying our liberal democracy is not working and we need to revisit it. And I agree with him that we must move to a political alternative. I think we are almost at a dead end.

“What we need is alternative politics and my own notion of alternative politics is that you can’t have 35 per cent of the vote and take 100 per cent of the spoil. It won’t work.

“We must look at proportional representation so that the party that is said to have 21 per cent of the vote will have 21 per cent representation in government. Adversaries politics bring division and enmity.

“All political parties in the country agreed and even put in their manifestos that subsidy must be removed. We all said subsidy must be removed. But we in ACN at the time in 2012, we knew it was all politics.

“That is why we must ensure that everybody is a crucial stakeholder by stopping all these. Put the manifesto of PDP, APC, Labour Party on the table and select all those who will pilot the programme from all parties.”

Nigerians will recall that on January 1, 2012, then President Goodluck Jonathan announced the removal of fuel subsidy.

This action led to the adjustment of the pump price of petrol from N65 per litre to N141 the decision sparked mass protests across Nigeria with the economy taking a hit. The administration was literally forced to recind the decision by replacing subsidies and reducing the pump price.

Fayemi equally faulted what he described as Nigeria’ politics of the winner-takes-all. He suggested that all political parties should

be made to place their manifestos on the table for a consensus to be built while an all inclusive system should be built in such a way that parties will find a place in government at the end of elections depending on their performance at the polls.

He equally credited the Jonathan administration for making giant strides in developing Nigeria’s economy. According to him, the last time Nigeria enjoyed economic growth was during his administration.

Also speaking during the event, former Minister of Aviation and a chieftain of the PDP, Osita Chidoka, said as the nation awaits the judgement of the Presidential Election Petition Court on Wednesday, parties should prepare to accept the outcome.

Specifically, the PDP Cheiftain advised President Ahmed Bola Tinubu to be prepared to relocate to Lagos and prepare for the 2027 general elections if he loses at the court.

Chidoka said, “If the court says Tinubu is no longer the President, he should pack his things and go to Lagos and prepare for the next election. If they say he is the president, we will continue our agitation for the reform of the electoral management system.”

VANGUARD

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Afghanistan-Pakistan Border Clashes Escalate After Alleged Air Strikes

Published

2 days ago

October 11, 2025

Editor

Afghanistan’s Taliban forces launched armed reprisals against Pakistani soldiers along the shared border on Saturday, accusing Islamabad of carrying out air strikes on its soil, senior officials from several provinces said Saturday.

On Thursday, two explosions were heard in the Afghan capital and another in the southeast of the country. The following day, the Taliban-run defence ministry blamed the attacks on Pakistan, accusing its neighbor of violating its sovereignty.

“In retaliation for air strikes carried out by the Pakistani army on Kabul,” Taliban forces are engaged “in heavy clashes against Pakistani security forces in various areas” along the border, the Afghan military said in a statement.

Islamabad did not confirm that it was behind Thursday’s attacks, but called on Kabul “to stop harbouring the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) on its soil.”

The TTP, trained in combat in Afghanistan and claiming to share the same ideology as the Afghan Taliban, is accused by Islamabad of having killed hundreds of its soldiers since 2021.

Taliban officials from Kunar, Nangarhar, Paktia, Khost, and Helmand provinces — all located on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan — confirmed that clashes were ongoing.

“This evening, Taliban forces began using weapons. We fired first light and then heavy artillery at four points along the border,” a senior official in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, bordering Afghanistan, told AFP.

“Pakistani forces responded with heavy fire and shot down three Afghan quadcopters suspected of carrying explosives. Intense fighting continues, but so far, no casualties have been reported,” he continued.

– Uptick in violence –

In recent months, TTP militants have intensified their campaign of violence against Pakistani security forces in the mountainous areas bordering Afghanistan.

Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of failing to expel militants who use Afghan territory to launch attacks on Pakistan, an accusation denied by authorities in Kabul.

The TTP and its affiliates are behind most of the violence — largely directed at security forces.

Earlier this year, a UN report said the TTP “receive substantial logistical and operational support from the de facto authorities”, referring to the Taliban government in Kabul.

Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told parliament on Thursday that several efforts to convince the Afghan Taliban to stop backing the TTP had failed.

“We will not tolerate this any longer,” Asif said. “United, we must respond to those facilitating them, whether the hideouts are on our soil or Afghan soil.”

Earlier Saturday, the TTP claimed responsibility for deadly attacks in several districts in northwest Pakistan that killed 20 security officials and three civilians.

AFP

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Taliban Attacks Kill 23 In Northwestern Pakistan

Published

2 days ago

October 11, 2025

Editor

The Pakistani Taliban on Saturday claimed responsibility for deadly attacks in several northwestern districts that killed 20 security officials and three civilians.

The attacks, which included a suicide bombing on a police training school, were carried out on Friday in several districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan.

Militancy has surged in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since the withdrawal of US-led troops from neighbouring Afghanistan in 2021 and the return of the Taliban government in Kabul.

Eleven paramilitary troops were killed in the border Khyber district, while seven policemen were killed after a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into the gate of a police training school, which was followed by a gun attack.

Five people, including three civilians, were killed in a separate clash in Bajaur district, security officials told AFP on Saturday.

The Pakistani Taliban, the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attacks in messages on social media. The group is separate from but closely linked with the Afghan Taliban.

The attacks came hours after Afghanistan’s Taliban government accused Pakistan of “violating Kabul’s sovereign territory”, a day after two explosions were heard in the capital.

Pakistan did not say if it was behind the blasts in Kabul, but said it had the right to defend itself against surging border militancy.

Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of failing to expel militants using Afghan territory to launch attacks on Pakistan, an accusation that authorities in Kabul deny.

The TTP and its affiliates are behind most of the violence — largely directed at security forces.

Including Friday’s attacks, at least 32 Pakistani troops and three civilians have been killed this week alone in the border regions.

AFP

Headline

US Threatens To Sanction Countries That Vote For Shipping Carbon Tax

Published

2 days ago

October 11, 2025

Editor

The United States on Friday threatened to impose sanctions and take other punitive action against any country that votes in favor of a carbon tax on maritime transportation to be implemented through a UN agency.

“We will fight hard to protect our economic interests by imposing costs on countries if they support” the Net Zero Framework, said a joint statement by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his counterparts at the departments of energy and transportation.

Members of the London-based International Maritime Organization (IMO) are set to vote next week on the adoption of the Net Zero Framework (NZF) agreement aimed at reducing global carbon emissions from the shipping sector.

Washington, however, described the proposal as imposing “a global carbon tax on the world.”

Since returning to power in January, US President Donald Trump has reversed Washington’s course on climate change, denouncing it as a “scam” and encouraging fossil fuel use by deregulation.

In the statement, Rubio, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the Trump administration “unequivocally rejects” the NZF proposal.

They threatened a range of punishing actions against countries that vote in favor of the framework, including: visa restrictions; blocking vessels registered in those countries from US ports; imposing commercial penalties; and considering sanctions on officials.

“The United States will be moving to levy these remedies against nations that sponsor this European-led neocolonial export of global climate regulations,” the statement said.