Governor of Adamawa state Murtala Nyako’s first memo to colleague northern governors has stirred intense debate and controversy.
Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State has launched a fresh attack on President Goodluck Jonathan, describing the Jonathan administration as the “most arrogant, corrupt and confused ever”, in a bitter exchange of brickbats that began Saturday.
Nyako said in a statement signed by Director of Press and Public Affairs, Ahmad I. Sajoh, that President Jonathan’s reaction to his earlier memo- in which the governor blamed the federal government for Boko Haram and accused it of genocide in the north- lacked substance.
Mr. Nyako’s first memo to colleague northern governors, published Saturday, had stirred intense debate and controversy.
In the letter, the governor said the federal government under Mr. Jonathan was behind the spreading of violence that has killed thousands in northern Nigeria. He dismissed Boko Haram as a “phantom” organization instigated by the government to massacre northerners.
The presidency’s reaction, issued by spokesperson Doyin Okupe, said the comments from the governor were a betrayal of trust by a major beneficiary of the Nigerian nation.
“The content of Nyako’s letter exposed him as lacking a sense of history as well as incapable of rising above parochial sentiments.
“The letter was extremely divisive and intentionally meant to incite one section of the country against the other.
“Nyako’s action is a pathetic embarrassment to the Nigerian military, from where he derives his career antecedents,” Mr. Okupe said.
In a reaction by Ahmad Sajoh, a spokesperson for Mr. Nyako, the governor said the presidency failed to respond to issues raised and resorted to name-calling.
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