The group described the president as embarking on a misdirected and transferred aggression.

The President had on Monday in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, lambasted some former NADECO leaders in the South-West, describing them as hypocrites.

Speaking at the presidential campaign rally of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the ancient city, Jonathan said the actions of some of the active participants could not be justified by what they once professed.

His words, “I did say that the South-West reminds one of the days of the National Democratic Coalition. But I am convinced that some of the NADECO actors were hypocrites because they cannot justify what they are doing today.

“The South-West believes in human rights and social justice. No South-Westerner will pray that someone, going through proper trial, will be jailed for 300 years and above. If they are not hypocrites, they couldn’t be doing what they are doing today, but I don’t want to go into that now. If they are not hypocrites, they will not be talking about not empowering women”.

But in its reaction, the group, in an exclusive interview with correspondent, said the president’s remark amounted to a ‘’misdirected and transferred aggression.”  

The group, according to its General Secretary, Mr. Ayo Opadokun,  who spoke with our correspondent, also accused him of not being a part of the struggle for the restoration of democracy in the country.

His words:  “I just regarded it as one of those avoidable misdirected speeches that people do make. There is what they called ‘transferred aggression’ I thought President Jonathan was not just being fair to himself and the office he represents.  “But come to think of it, where was President Jonathan when we were laying down our lives for the restoration of democracy in Nigeria? Where was he in his village there? Because he does not carry along a credible profile. He was not part of us in the trenches. He clearly didn’t know what we fought for. So he will not even understand.”

Reflecting on the development that led to the formation of the coalition, the NADECO Scribe said “When MKO Abiola victory was annulled, the first thing that occurred to us in Yorubaland was that, that couldn’t have been possible if the Nigerian national structure is right.  “ It is because the national structure is warped. That is why one man, (Babangida) from a motley crowd of his people, annulled an election, which the great majority of Nigerians produced- a pan-Nigerian mandate. We now sat down and called our colleagues in the East and the Middle Belt. That was on the basis of which we now invited all Nigerians and civil society groups to form NADECO and we fought the battle”.

Opadokun however, challenged President Jonathan to mention what he has done for the Yoruba nation, who, according to him, were at the forefront of the struggle for democratic rule.

“If we are now saying Jonathan is not doing anything right, we are justified. He was not part of our struggle even to our democracy which he is enjoying and he is misusing the opportunity and to say that Yoruba people are now following military man is arrant nonsense because of (I think) he has very low quality of education to understand what is happening globally. Yoruba people are asking what has he done to the Yoruba nation since he got into office?. He queried.