Jonathan Tells Nyako: Your Memo Senseless, Unpatriotic

President Goodluck Jonathan has lambasted Adamawa State Governor Murtala Nyako for accusing his administration of sponsoring genocide in the north. Jonathan was reacting to Nyako’s memorandum to the Northern Governors’ Forum (NGF) which accused the Federal Government of being behind the Boko Haram insurgency, with plans to deny citizens of northern Nigeria their voting rights in the next general elections.

The president, through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs Doyin Okupe, in a statement yesterday, described Nyako’s memo to his northern colleagues as senseless and unpatriotic.

He added that the memo was an unmitigated leadership disaster and a sad betrayal of trust by a major beneficiary of the nation.

The presidential aide said the governor’s letter was extremely divisive and intentionally meant to incite one section of the country against the other.

According to him, the content of the letter unfortunately exposes Nyako as lacking a sense of history as well as incapable of rising above parochial sentiments and possessing a morbid hatred for facts and truth in public discourse.

Okupe said Nyako attempted to demonise the Federal Government by likening the military operations against insurgents to the activities of German dictator, Adolf Hitler.

He also knocked the governor for saying the Federal Government should be held responsible for terrorist activities, especially the killings and wanton destruction of property, as well as the abduction of school children in the Northeast.

He said Nyako’s invitation to other northern governors to sue the Federal Government defied common sense and portrayed him as unfit for the hallowed position of a state governor.

Okupe, therefore, challenged Nyako to publish his annual budget for the past five years and disclose how much had been voted to support terror war and assist victims of attacks in Adamawa State.