The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said President Goodluck Jonathan
is exhibiting the traits of an insensitive and utterly hardhearted leader
by returning to his illegal campaign trail, barely 24 hours after 75 of
his compatriots died in a bomb blast in Abuja, and as news broke that 200
school girls have been abducted by Boko Haram in Borno.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Wednesday by its Interim National
Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party also renewed its call
on the President to urgently convene a
stakeholders’ summit and
pursue a nonpartisan approach towards ending the insurgency, as it is now
very obvious that the challenge posed by it is beyond the capacity of the
government.
It said the President’s quick return to the hustings was reprehensible and
has shown that his visit to the scene of the blast was merely to avoid the
kind of flak he has received for refusing to visit Yobe, where 43 school
children were massacred recently, rather than a genuine show of sympathy
by a truly compassionate leader.
”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.
”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. 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?
”Without mincing words, President Jonathan erred badly by not showing
enough sympathy for the victims of Monday’s blast. More people died in the
blast than from Kenya’s mall shooting last September, yet President Uhuru
Kenyatta declared three days of national mourning during which flags at
public buildings flew at half mast and the people of Kenya prayed for the
dead and the injured.
”In 2012, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari ordered the immediate postponement of all
activities long planned to mark his 70th birthday, following the death in
a helicopter crash of Gen. Azazi, Gov. Yakowa and others in a helicopter
crash in Bayelsa. Such is the stuff of a great leader.
The party urged President Jonathan, as a father, a leader and a human
being, to take a moment of deep introspection, to reflect on his actions,
adding: ”Perhaps he will realize 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 said it was imperative for the President to hearken to the voice of
reason because his aides and party officials, desperate not to be pushed
off the gravy train, would rather blame everyone but the President and
themselves for the woes that have befallen Nigeria under
the
President’s watch.