FOUNDER of the Oodua People’s Congress, Dr. Frederick Fasheun, has blasted the former chair of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Ahmadu Ali, for his characterization of the Yoruba people as a nation of ingrates.
The medical doctor’s reaction is the latest in a line of similar expression of umbrage at Ali’s remarks about the Yoruba people, whom he felt did not show enough support for former President Olusegun Obasanjo, a Peoples Democratic Party acolyte of Ali.
Fasehun described Ali’s comment as a symptom of “verbal diarrhoea,” saying that it reveals the former Minister of Education, whose mishandling of a students’ crisis led to the death of several youths in 1978, “as insensitive, reckless and narcissistic as ever”.
Making his feelings known in a recent statement, Mr. Fasheun said it was bad for the retired colonel to insult world-class Yoruba dignitaries to whom he can never aspire to stand-up.
“There are some leaders, who had accidentally found themselves in positions in our national life, but their poor performance made them immaterial that Nigerians would rather prefer to abandon (them) on the rubbish dump of ignominy.
“Retired Colonel Ahmadu Ali is one such character. Who can forget his inglorious role as Minister of Education in the 1978 ‘Ali Must Go saga’ that resulted in the death of over 10 university students nationwide?
“Ali, having recently failed in the contest PDP Board of Trustees Chairman, is looking for relevance in order to worm himself back into the heart of the Presidency for political salvation and rehabilitation.” Faehun fired.
He however admonished President Goodluck Jonathan and the ruling PDP to avoid Ali “like the plague” saying the retired military officer had become a political liability.