The Presidency has responded to the
statement of National leader of the All
Progressives Congress, Bola Ahmed Tinubu,
who urged President Jonathan to resign
over his inability to secure the lives of
Nigeria and to end the menace of Boko
Haram.
On Thursday, 6 November, a statement was
released by the Senior Special Assistant to
the President on Public Affairs, Doyin Okupe,
who lambasted the former governor of
Lagos state over his comments. Okupe
stated that Tinubu and leaders of the
opposition party “are a bunch of political
anarchists and charlatans”.
The Senior Special Assistant also implored
the APC leader to educate Nigerians on any
President who has ever resigned during an
ongoing war, in the history of the world.
“The suggestion by one of the leaders of the
All Progressives Congress, Senator Bola
Tinubu, that President Goodluck Jonathan
should resign from office as a result of the
activities of insurgents in the north-eastern
part of the country, has once again shown
beyond doubt that the former Lagos State
governor and his colleagues in the
opposition are a bunch of political
anarchists and charlatans blinded by an
unbridled appetite for power.”
“The assertion by Tinubu at a political rally
in Ilorin, Kwara State on Wednesday that in
‘civilised’ societies, the President should
have resigned is unfounded and lacking in
historical precedence. We challenge him to
tell Nigerians which part of his ‘civilised’
world has there been a call on a President
to resign during an on-going war.”
“When terrorists attacked the United States
of America in September 2001, the leaders
of the Democratic Party did not demand a
resignation of President George Bush but
rather they rose in defence of the American
nation to support the various measures
taken by the President to defeat the al
Qaeda terrorists. It is therefore unfortunate
that the APC, in its desperation for power
and eagerness to make selfish political
gains from insecurity, has shown a total
lack of the spirit of Nationalism and
statesmanship in its public comments on
the challenges of insurgency in the North
East.”
Okupe accused the APC chieftains of using
the insurgency as an avenue to chastise
President Jonathan and the Nigerian Armed
Forces, while also adding that instead of
resorting to “brigandage”, Tinubu and the
APC should go and work on their “unispiring
manfestoes”.
“It is particularly sad that leaders of the
APC would mount every available podium to
pour invectives on the President and ridicule
members of the Armed Forces of Nigeria
who are in the battlefield of the war against
terror in the North East of this country.
Telling the President to resign because of
an ongoing insurgency is the height of
insensitive, indecorous and bad politics
which ought to be roundly condemned by
every Patriotic Nigerian.”
“We wish to the remind the likes of Senator
Tinubu that by the provisions of the
Nigerian constitution, the only recognized
means of changing a government is through
the electoral process which comes every
four years.”
“If the APC leader has a problem about the
chances of his political party winning an
election, as he obviously does, he should
not resort to brigandage, rather we will
advise that they go back to the drawing
board to rewrite their lack-luster, ill-defined
and uninspiring manifestoes and see if they
can sell it to the Nigerian public side by
side with the well-articulated, dutifully
executed and widely acclaimed
Transformation Agenda of President
Goodluck Jonathan.”
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