APC accuses Jonathan of covering his cluelessness in solving nation"s problem

THE All Progressives Congress, APC, yesterday, accused the Peoples Democratic Party of attempting to cover up President Goodluck Jonathan’s alleged cluelessness in solving the nation’s problems by insinuating that the president was being attacked because he was from a minority ethnic group.

The PDP on its part accused the opposition party of trying to violently overthrow the government of Goodluck Jonathan

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In a statement issued in Ibadan by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the PDP’s claim that the Boko Haram insurgency and other internecine crises in the country were being sponsored by the opposition because the President hails from a minority group is not grounded in fact.

It said the First Republic Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa (Sayewa) and military heads of state Yakubu Gowon (Angas) and Sani Abacha (Kanuri) were also from minority ethnic groups, a fact that is lost on the trifling PDP, adding, “the PDP has recently been making outlandish statements and accusations that are capable of destabilizing Nigeria. In its new found proclivity for issuing frivolous press statements, the party has forgotten that facts are sacred and cannot be manipulated. But even by its low standard, the PDP has plumbed the depth of irresponsibility with its latest claim.

“President Jonathan’s woes have nothing to do with his minority ethnicity, but the manifestation of his incompetence, cluelessness and inferiority complex, and the fact that he is backed by a greedy, visionless and crooked cabal, both within his government and his party.”.

The party said if indeed the PDP believes the opposition is sponsoring Boko Haram to stop President Jonathan from realizing his so-called Transformation Agenda, what prevents the PDP-led Federal Government from instituting a probe into all the incidences so far, and to unravel the sources of the sect’s weapons, as demanded recently by Gov. Murtala Nyako?

APC said just like ethno-religious crises in Nigeria predate President Jonathan’s assumption of office, the Boko Haram insurgency started in 2002 during the Obasanjo regime, even though it became aggravated in 2009 when then President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua ordered a joint security operation, following the killing of over a dozen policemen, and the failure of police action to curb the crisis.

The party said it is public knowledge that the operation led to the killing of an estimated 1,000 alleged Boko Haram members, including the extra-judicial murder of sect leader Muhammed Yusuf, and set the stage for the insurgency that Nigeria is witnessing today. “Even then, the insurgency that could have been quickly curtailed has worsened under President Jonathan because of his ineffectual leadership. Instead of tackling the insurgency decisively as a well-honed leader would have done, the clueless President and his equally feckless party have resorted to blaming the opposition and everyone but themselves for the worsening of the crisis,” it said.

APC said the usual recourse to President Jonathan’s ethnic origin to cover his glaring non-performance does not impress Nigerians, who are aware that as a minority, Jonathan could not have become President without the votes of the country’s majority ethnic groups- Hausa/Fulani, Igbo and Yoruba. “In any case, if the PDP is arguing that President Jonathan is being ‘persecuted’ because he hails from a minority ethnic group, is it the majority ethnic groups that supposedly voted massively for him that are now persecuting him? And what will be their reasons for persecuting the same man they voted into office?

“The truth is that President Jonathan is overwhelmed by the demands of his office, and his party is more interested in looting the public treasury than assisting him to succeed. The President and his party should admit their failure to meet the yearnings and aspirations of Nigeria and give way to those who are willing and able to perform.”

APC said a country that has no discernible counter-terrorism strategy that will clearly identify the multiple means for preventing, responding and defeating terrorist groups, including the alignment of political, military, social and economic instruments and objectives, cannot expect to successfully battle any insurgency.

APC plans violent overthrow of govt— PDP

Meanwhile, the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday, took a swipe at the All Progressives Congress, APC, alleging that the leadership of the party and members have concluded plans to violently overthrow the government of President Goodluck Jonathan.

In a statement by PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, the  PDP noted that the unfortunate comparison by the APC was a tacit acknowledgment that the opposition party was planning to take Nigeria back to dictatorship.

Metuh’s statement read, “The Peoples Democratic Party has punctured an attempt by the All Progressives Congress APC to dismiss its complicity in the rising wave of insurgency and its concomitant adverse effects on national governance by drawing  an incongruent comparison between a democratically elected presidency with proven fidelity to democratic tenets  and defunct military dictatorships. The  unfortunate comparison by the APC was a tacit acknowledgment that this opposition party was planning to take Nigeria back to dictatorship.

“The APC has never left the nation in doubt of its preference. It wants a return to barefaced tyranny, to dictatorship as previously unleashed on the nation by a hue in its top leadership. But Nigerians have handed the party a shocker – we have crossed the red sea and shall never go back to Egypt. It was a preposterous distortion of facts and history to  compare the  Jonathan presidency to either Gen. Gowon’s or Gen. Abacha’s  even though the three of them come from minority ethnic groups because the two former heads of State were unelected and operated a purely undiluted military dictatorship that brooked no opposition.”

“ Under the current administration of President Jonathan, the wheel of democracy together with its immense benefits has turned full circle, giving Nigerians all liberties, an opportunity that the  opposition has unfortunately applied so indecently  to hurl all manner of abuses on the president.

“The plan of the APC is to destabilize the government and balkanise Nigeria, the PDP insisted that the party  had planned to use insurgency which ranks high in its Janjaweed ideology  to overthrow a democratically elected government of President Jonathan   but has been put under an effective check.

“The plan B of the APC is to use the same insurgency to unleash unprecedented mayhem when it loses the 2015 general election and forcefully take over power, saying that the PDP has evidence of meetings held outside the shores of the country in pursuit of this ignoble objective. It added that the APC has been confused and disorganized since its connection with insurgency as part of its janjaweed ideology in the country was exposed.

“ Though it was common knowledge that insurgency in the north predated the present administration, it was not a mere coincident that these mindless attacks gain ricocheting tempo  each time the President moves notches higher in his transformation programme. This clearly betrays the shameful efforts by those in the masks and their sponsors to frustrate the efforts of government.

“In spite of  this well planned distraction, the steady delivery of the transformation programme goes on. It is incontrovertible that pound for pound, no previous  administration compares to  President Jonathan   in quality delivery within the first three years of governance.

“Therefore, each time the APC barks “ incompetence “ like a rabid dog or hoots “clueless” like a devouring night owl, the PDP and well meaning Nigerians know that the opposition party whose agenda of destabilization has been exposed and unhorsed is licking its wounds.”

“We wish to again challenge  the APC to a public debate on the leadership and successes of President Jonathan and we verily hope it will this time pick up this challenge that any opposition worth its name would clinch with two hands.”

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APC accuses Jonathan of covering his cluelessness in solving nation"s problem