…Nigerians Must Hold the Jonathan Presidency Responsible — Tinubu
Reacting to the attack on the Speaker and the National Assembly in Abuja on Thursday, the National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Tinubu, has said that by deploying hundreds of Police to prevent the Speaker of the House from entering the National Assembly, the President has revealed his hand to be a devious one.
According to a statement released by his media office, Tinubu held the stance because having asked the Speaker to convene the House to consider extending the state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, the Jonathan government still deployed the nation’s Police to stop the fourth ranking citizen of the nation from entering his place of work.
Speaker Aminu Tambuwal was going to the House of the President as a result of the letter from the Presidency on a matter of urgent national importance.
Tinubu said: “Tambuwal did not have to accede to the presidential request to reconvene the House; but because he is a statesman and not a political hack, he assented so his chamber might consider this a matter of vital national importance. Despite the removal of the Policemen and Security team around him he still proceeded at great personal risk to answer the call of duty. He took the risk, believing his personal situation was a secondary thing when the fate of the nation comes into question.
The hand of the President and his men have their hand written all over the invasion of the National Assembly.”
He maintained that no Commissioner of Police will ever embark on such an action without the clearance of the Inspector General of police and no IGP will order his men out here without approval by the Presidency.
He further held that Nigerians know where the buck stops, saying the Jonathan Presidency must take full responsibility for the attack on the leadership of the National Assembly.
“This government cannot claim to be unaware of what the Police would do. This gangster’s antic occurred almost at their doorstep,” Tinubu said.
“The Jonathan presidency can no longer play ignorant regarding the noxious things done for partisan ends.
“Instead of seriously treating Boko Haram’s incursion against our internal security, the President’s men decided to turn the event into a partisan and embarrassing circus. Perhaps they saw this as a birthday present to Mr. President.”
He described the current administration as nothing but brigandage masquerading as governance.
“What this Presidency does not realise is how terribly it has exposed its pettiness and dictatorial penchant for elevating narrow political interests above the fate of the nation,” he said.
“There is little wonder the nation is losing ground to Boko Haram. This government has allowed and even welcomed the downward slide. If seriously committed to breaking the spine of this insurgency, the Jonathan government would have ensured that the House met without disturbance or partisan rancor. Instead, Jonathan and his men used the gravest armed threat the nation has suffered in forty years, to lay a partisan political trap for one single man instead allowing the House to deliberate for the good of 170 million people hoping for a way out of the growing carnage. The conduct of the presidency shows that whenever dire national interests conflict with that of individual ambitions, the former will be rejected to violently promote the latter. The priorities of the Jonathan Presidency are as wrong as wrong can get. Their actions are devoid of national purpose. They reek of pungent ambition. A weakness of character now permeates national leadership.”
He berated the Presidency, saying it has left the nation’s grave problems unattended yet have the rashness to create new ones by trashing the nation’s democratic institutions and mocking constitutional checks and balances.
He pointed out that the most notable achievement of the Jonathan government has been to bring democracy to its knees.
“This is not the hallmark of a President but the work of a potentate,” he said.
“While enjoying the taste of this cheap tactical victory it is hoped Nigerians and the international community are sampling the bigger picture. In trying to quash the opposition by all means necessary, this government unleash forces they do not even recognize let alone be able to control them.
“Thus, Nigerians are in a precarious situation. In the face of the menace of Boko Haram’s terror and rampage, members of the loyal opposition have extended the hand of cooperation to this government often and without condition. We have provided suggestions on fighting the group and winning the hearts and minds of the people. Had the Jonathan government taken these suggestions, things would not be as they are today. This government scoffed at our help. Even when the Speaker answered the call of duty, as a patriot should, Jonathan and his men were more concerned with setting an ambush for him than in resolving the serious matter at hand. For them the only serious matter, was their political standing. While the opposition has been loyal to the nation, Jonathan and the PDP led government have not. This is the point of our greatest departure from the course.”
Tinubu held that the Jonathan Presidency is a government that has lost its head.
He lamented that this government has run amok and has jettisoned all sense of proportion. He said the nation now faces two threats. One is Boko Haram’s attack on the people and the other is the Presidency’s attack on the people’s democracy.
“As such, a state of emergency now exists in Abuja, in Aso Villa itself because of this breakdown of democratic governance. Jonathan and his men are the reason for the state of emergency,” he said.
“It seems that the only way this emergency shall be lifted is for this government to perpetuate itself in office. The removal of this government from office shall not be done with military power, armed might or police brutality. Their ouster will come from a nobler source. The power of the people and their want for democratic good governance,” he said.
You are Jeopardising the Economy — GOS
Also Senate minority whip and Chairman of the upper legislative chamber Committee on Capital Market, Senator Ganiyu Olanrewaju Solomon (GOS) has condemned in the strongest term the crisis that engulfed the National Assembly on Thursday.
Solomon who is running for governor in Lagos State on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) said in Lagos on Friday that the police attack on the federal lawmakers was the height of executive lawlessness and interference.
He noted that the invasion of the hallowed chambers was a signal that the police might not be impartial in the February 2015 general election.
The front-runner aspirant called on the Inspector-General of Police, Suleiman Abba to maintain neutrality in political matters and remain impartial in contests among the political parties.
Solomon who was a member of the House of Representatives before being elected to the senate pointed out that the issue of the defection and speakership of Hon. Aminu Tambuwal should be left to the members to resolve and not the executive coming into it to muscle him out of office.
“With Tambuwal already in court, Police should allow the judiciary to decide what should happen to his seat, not the executive arm interpreting the constitution,” Solomon said.
“Thursday’s incident was tragic in every sense of it. A repeat could completely undermine this democracy”.
He also expressed his worry about the negative impact the much-publicised crisis could have on Nigeria’s international trade, pointing out that the signals were already there as evident in the live chat that Richard Quest of CNN had with the Minister of Finance yesterday.
“Quest pointed out that the international world was worried about the crisis and our economy. The world is now a global village, we must be very careful,” he noted.
Dakuku Peterside, Others Irresponsible — Obuah
In his reaction, Chairman of PDP, Rivers State chapter, Felix Obuah said the fence scaling by some overzealous APC Lawmakers on Thursday, was avoidable and unnecessary.
The plot, he said was just to heat up the polity to find occasion to accuse Jonathan of trying to intimidate them ahead of next year’s general elections having been caught by the President’s phobia.
The PDP boss in a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media, Jerry Needam described the lawmakers among whom was Dakuku Peterside, member representing Opobo/Nkoro/Andoni Federal Constituency of Rivers State as irresponsible and having written their names on the wrong side of history for coming generations to judge.
Obuah noted that the APC lawmakers Thursday’s madness though one act too many has only shown the Nigerian masses what the party is up to and why they are desperate to grab power.
It’s now left for the rest of Nigerians to decide whether these are the kind of leaders they want to elect as their representatives in 2015, the PDP chairman remarked.
While commending President Goodluck Jonathan for maintaining his usual cool over the provocative act, Prince Obuah reminded the APC rascals that crisis is an ill-wind that blows no good to anyone even as no one has monopoly of violence.
He reassured that no amount of provocation can make the PDP tread off the path of peace, respect for the laws of the land and absolute regard for the Nigerian people whose trust in the PDP remains unshaken and who are poised to continue to vote for the most populous party in Africa as their surest bet.
