The Action Congress of Nigeria on Monday said two members of the Nuhu Ribadu Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force, Steve Oronsaye and Bernard Otti, were the ones who insulted President Goodluck Jonathan by the way they turned last Friday\u2019s presentation of the panel\u2019s report into \u201ca theatre of the absurd.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement issued in Lagos on Monday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the Presidency also condoned the insult by the way it handled the outburst by Oronsaye and Otti, \u201ctreating them with kid gloves when they should have been censured for their audacity and discourteous behaviour atthe public presentation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The party said, \u201cOronsaye\u2019s incredibly audacious statement, that \u2018the President has asked us to submit the report\u2026.and so what?\u2019 should have elicited the reaction which the Presidency issued to ACN\u2019s statement, if indeed the Presidency is concerned about insults.\u201d<\/p>\n
The party said the presidency was trying to blackmail the opposition by now accusing it of insulting the President, \u201cfor merely saying the obvious,\u201d that the only reason Oronsaye and Otti could have acted in such a brazen manner with the President seated right there is if they were indeed programmed to perform the role of spoilers by discrediting the report.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Jonathan is a democratically-elected President, not an oracle who cannot and must not be criticised. Therefore,we at the ACN will continue to offer constructive criticism of his administration, true to our role of providing responsible opposition.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe stand by our statement and will not be cowed by this old, cheap trick of labelling constructive criticism as an insult,\u201d ACN said.<\/p>\n
It challenged the Presidency to deny the facts contained in the party\u2019s earlier statement on the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s restate the facts, for the avoidance of doubt: One, Oronsaye and Otti were already serving on the task force before they were given the plum NNPC jobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo, the Federal Government could have waited for them to complete their assignment before giving them suspicious appointments, if only to avoid possible conflict of interest or any perception of such.<\/p>\n
\u201cThree, the men could have resigned their membership of the task force after they got themselves the NNPC jobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd four, they could have written a minority report when they disagreed with the conclusion of the task force, instead of choosing the presentation venue to discredit the report.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are the facts that the Presidency, through the presidential spokesman, Reuben Abati, should have addressed, instead of resorting to name calling.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn any case, we are not surprised at Abati\u2019s metamorphosis. With his snout now deeply inserted in the nectar of office, criticisms have turned to insults in his eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cACN said this is the same Abati who, in his newspaper column before fortune smiled on him, regularly tackled sitting Presidents with his unsparing articles.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn one of such, entitled \u2018The President\u2019s missing ears\u2019, he wrote of then President Umaru Yar\u2019Adua: \u2018Men Without Ears is the title of a 1984 novel by Nigerian writer, Ifeoma Okoye. With due respect, President Umaru Yar\u2019Adua is beginning to behave like a man without ears.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing without ears refers to a certain obduracy, a peculiar inability to appreciate the truth. I see the same problem in the Yar\u2019Adua presidency, seven months down the line.<\/p>\n
Abati went further: \u201dThe President either needs the services of ane ar doctor (I am sorry sir) or he needs to listen a bit more attentively.
\nThere are issues in this country which need to be addressed urgently, which the government is treating with kid gloves,\u201d the party added.<\/p>\n
It stated that since Abati apparently did not believe that the article under reference contained any insult against then President Yar\u2019Adua, \u201cit is disingenuous of him to keep haranguing critics of his boss for insulting him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Action Congress of Nigeria on Monday said two members of the Nuhu Ribadu Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force, Steve Oronsaye and Bernard Otti, were the ones who insulted President…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n