The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said President Goodluck Jonathan goofed badly by taking a partisan stand on the ongoing insurgency in the country, rather than seeing it for what it is – a national problem.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the party said President Jonathan’s attempt to blame APC Governors for the insurgency amounts to an unfortunate politicization and trivialization of a serious national problem and explains why the President has been exhibiting sheer cluelessness and total incompetence in tackling the crisis.
It said the comments credited to the President also shows that he has little or no appreciation of his role as the father of the nation, who should regard the entire country as his constituency, rather than exulting in being a chieftain of the PDP
”President Jonathan did not speak with facts when he gave the impression that insecurity in the country is restricted to states controlled by our party. Had he allowed himself to be guided by facts rather than fiction, he would have realized that Plateau state, which has witnessed perhaps the highest quantum of killing of innocent people in any single state in recent times, is not an APC state, neither is Benue, Kaduna, Akwa Ibom or Enugu, where separatists recently attempted to forcefully take over a radio station.
”Talking of Akwa Ibom, President Jonathan has either forgotten the content of his government’s White Paper on the ”Report of the Federal a Government Investigation Panel on the 2011 Election Violence and Disturbances”, which fingered the PDP-controlled state as the source
of the sophisticated weapons used in the unrest, or he decided to deliberately distort the facts just to smear the opposition,” APC said.
Quoting from the White Paper, the party said: ”The panel also observed that some memoranda received from Akwa Ibom State alleged that there is a large scale arms running going on in the State….The panel recommends that Government should conduct an in-depth investigation into the allegations of large scale arms running in Akwa Ibom State to stem the tide of illegal arms flow into the country and ensure proper monitoring and licensing of local manufacturers of
firearms and dealers.”
It urged President Jonathan to stop embarrassing himself and the nation by making indiscreet comments that do not accentuate his position as the leader of Africa’s most populous nation
”Can anyone imagine US President Barack Obama publicly blaming governors elected under the aegis of the Republican Party for cases of deadly shooting in schools in his country? Can anyone imagine the US President giving a partisan coloration to the 1993 raid on the religious sect Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, for violating federal law?
”President Jonathan must always resist the temptation to act in an unpresidential manner, to say things that will embarrass his nation and her people, to act more like a party chairman than a President, to make comments that can easily be debunked and to say things that divide his people along religious and ethnic lines.
”The truth is that President Jonathan, as the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, controls the nation’s entire security apparatus.
Therefore, he bears the ultimate responsibility for the security of all Nigerians, whether they are members of the APC, PDP, Labour Party or any party whatsoever. Insecurity in Adamawa, Borno, Benue, Plateau or Enugu state is a failure of the President, not that of the Governors of those states,” APC said.
The party said the reason the Boko Haram insurgency has festered is that President Jonathan, instead of showing leadership in tackling it, has engaged in finger pointing and the apportioning of blame.
”Mr. President, we have said this before and we will repeat it: The buck stops at your desk. You must learn to take responsibility instead of constantly dodging it. After all, it was Winston Churchill who said ‘The price of greatness is responsibility’,” it said.
