Jonathan's Administration Was Better Than Obasanjo's - Anya

An elder statesman and president of Ndigbo Lagos, Professor Anya O. Anya has said that the administration of former president Goodluck Jonathan was better than that of ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo.

He said that prominent among those that have been criticising Jonathan’s administration were Obasanjo former aides, Vangaurd reports.

Anya made this statement yesterday, August 17, at the 65th birthday of the former chairman of Neimeth Pharmaceuticals Sam Ohuabunwa in Lagos.

“Unfortunately in Nigeria, we are all in a haste to pronounce opinion and we take opinion as if it is the truth. The past government has been heavily criticized but this past government was not worse than the government before it. In fact, the immediate past government was better than the one before it. Sadly, those criticizing past government are those who were in Obasanjo’s government,” he said

The elder statesman added that the country is not yet a nation, adding that all hands must be on desk to make it so.

Anya said: “The problem now is that we are now trying to build a nation. We don’t have a nation but whether we like it or not, a nation is going to emerge out of Nigeria. And it is going to be from the contributions of Sam and all of us putting our individual experiences on the table and drawing lessons and teaching the lessons to others.”

He further stressed that the dearth of well-written books have robbed the country of the needed knowledge that would have helped Nigerians to reflect on what had happened in the past in order to shape the future.

“Unfortunately, we don’t write books enough and because of this, our nation does not have the opportunity to reflect on what has happened in the past and learn lessons from it. It is out of a people’s experience that you can write history. A nation that cannot learn from history cannot make the kind of progress that we expect,” Anya said.

Meanwhile, there are indications that the Abdulsalami Abubakar-led National Peace Committee might be pushing for a soft landing for the former president Goodluck Jonathan, after President Buhari’s reported intention to investigate Jonathan’s administration.