by Lai Labode

Nigeria truly deserves better than these nonsensical letter written by a privileged disgruntled daughter of a man whose place in history is secured in the good , the bad and ugly sides of our history .

I sympathize with younger Obasanjo’s that are at the receiving end of the internal family failures of the older Obasanjo clan . Iyabo however needs to spare us of the Obasanjo family issues . Most Nigerians should be interested in dealing with matters that concern majority of Nigerian and not the ‘African Magic’ letter written by Iyabo.

Many must wonder why Iyabo chose this time to let everyone know that her father is a beast and left the country worse than he met it . How many times have we seen Iyabo praise her father to death on National TV when everything was rosy ? What a shame !

President Jonathan has a great opportunity to re-write history by listening to those who ask him to focus on the issues and not the distraction of those who want to benefit from the political wars going on . Nigeria needs more of people who can focus on her real issues and not those who leverage our frustrations to settle family scores .

Nigeria truly deserves better than these nonsensical letter written by a privileged disgruntled daughter of a man whose place in history is secured in the good , the bad and ugly sides of our history .

I think our concern now should be how we quit paying lip service to national development . We all sit on our blackberries and iPhones and pass judgments on Obasanjo and President Goodluck . Why don’t we move a step further to do something about the things we all like to accuse them of ?

Obasanjo has done his part , President Jonathan has power now and can make the best of it . I hope and pray that he responds only positively to re-assure Nigerians . Leadership isn’t a promise of perfection by any means .

No nation is destined for greatness without the deliberate effort of it people . The deliberate effort of the people must come with a good measure of positivity despite the myriads of issues facing our nation . There are good things also going on with this government , we must emphasize those things too .

When leadership fails , followership has a responsibility to re-make the society and refresh its spirit for common good . Nigeria’s problem isn’t any political party , it is a problem of a morally corrupt political class ironically aided by we the people .

The attractiveness of leadership needs to change from what we can make for it to what legacies we can guarantee for all our people . However for this to happen Nigerians needs to become more positive and less cynical about everyone in government .

The Negativity is just too much and it has reached a crescendo that requires a rethink . That rethink doesn’t mean we will not still complain about all that is wrong about our country . We must as a matter of responsibility speak up but we do it more responsibly and less cynically .

I truly hope this Iyabo letter is a hoax.

A new Nigeria will emerge sooner than we think !

Lai Labode , 18th Dec 2013

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.