The All Progressives Congress (APC) has condemned President Goodluck Jonathan as being insensible and hardhearted for following through with his campaign trail itinerary, despite the horrific bomb blast and the kidnapping of 200 schoolgirls by Boko Haram in Borno, occurring barely 24hours earlier.
According to a statement issued by APC in Lagos on Wednesday, the party is once again calling on Jonathan to immediately summon a stakeholders’ summit that would pursue a nonpartisan approach towards finally ending the terror that has gripped the country, saying it is now very clear that the government is incapable of quelling the menace unaided.
In the statement signed by the party’s interim national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, APC accused the president of merely paying eye service by visiting the bomb blast site to avoid the type of criticism he got when he failed to visit Yobe after 43 school children were killed recently.
“The message that President Jonathan is sending to Nigerians is that keeping his plum job, at all cost, is more important to him than the security and welfare of the same people who voted him into office. Otherwise, the President would not have rushed back to his illegal campaign trail at a time he should be leading the nation in mourning the dead”, Mohammed said in the statement.
Mohammed likened Jonathan’s campaign in Kano, shortly after the Nyanya bomb blast, to making a mockery of the incident, describing the campaign as “illegal”.
“A President who said his ambition is not worth the blood of anyone is now dancing gleefully on the graves of over 70 of his compatriots”, Mohammed said.
“What is so important about the illegal campaign stop in Kano on Tuesday that could not have waited for the smoke to clear from the scene of the deadly blast on Monday? Who will President Jonathan rule over when his countrymen and women are being daily mowed down under his watch?”
He expressed disapproval of the president’s action, saying he has erred badly by not showing enough sympathy for the victims of the blast.
He pointed to the September 2013 Westgate Mall attack in Kenya, saying Nyanya blast claimed more lives than the attack, yet Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, declared three days of national mourning during which flags at public buildings flew at half mast and Kenyans prayed for the dead and the injured.
He also contrasted the president’s actions to that of APC stalwart, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, who postponed all activities long planned to mark his 70th birthday in commiseration, after General Azazi, former national security adviser; Patrick Yakowa, former governor of Kaduna State, and others died in a helicopter crash in Bayelsa in 2012, saying Buhari’s action exemplifies a true leader.
APC urged Jonathan to remember that it is the humane actions displayed during his rule that would count long after he no longer holds the reigns.
“Perhaps he will realise that long after the glitz of office would have dimmed and the retinue of lick-spittle aides would have vanished, a leader would be remembered more for his humanity than his vanities”, APC urged.
