Akande running down Nigeria, says Presidency
Presidency has accused the interim national chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande, of running down Nigeria and creating problems for the country.
Akande, at a press conference on Sunday, had blamed President Goodluck Jonathan for not doing enough to rescue the girls kidnapped from Chibok, Borno State, by Boko Haram.
He also said Nigeria was on “auto pilot”.
Presidential spokesman Reuben Abati said government was not mouthing meaningless phrases and engaging “in blame game. This government has a job to do and it is doing the job”.
Abati said this was “a very serious moment that requires all seriousness” and “to reduce all of that to partisan politics is in bad taste, irresponsible one-upmanship”.
“First, we consider it most unfortunate that the chairman of the APC will use the opportunity of the situation in the country namely the abduction of the girls of GSSC, Chibok, to engage in partisan blackmail.
“One, Nigeria is not on auto pilot. There is a government in place, there is a President who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. He is doing his very best to provide quality leadership and to reassure Nigerians that government stands ready always to defend their best interest,” he said.
He said to “give the impression that the president is doing nothing is dishonest”.
Abati noted that Akande has made a number of recommendations.
He said: “This administration welcomes suggestions and recommendations. If he had limited his contributions to just making these recommendations, he would have sounded like a statesman.
“But let him be informed that even those recommendations that he has made are things that are already in place. These are steps that had already been taken by this administration. So there is nothing original in his recommendations that is unknown to the administration.
“But he went beyond making recommendations to begin to engage in politics. We will like to advise people like him that where national interest is involved, we should come together and work hand-in-hand with the government. This is not the occasion for politicking, campaigning about 2015 and trying to run down the country.”
What is there in the Akande interview that was not supposed to be said and which should elicit Abati's big grammar at this time when we should be engaged in actions not semantic grandstanding? Abati desires suggestions and recommendations yet when these are proffered to his clueless Boss, he claims such recommendations are not useful! Given his posture of knowing it all and having-all-the-answers, will any suggestions and recommendations ever be accepted as useful? If you ask me, Abati should just earn his pay and get lost and be consigned to the trash can of history like all those before him. He and his Boss and Madam have nothing more to offer Nigerians. I am wondering why Boko Haram will not go after them and their plenty adopted children instead of those innocent school girls!
When wild Islamic Arabs siezed the airspace of the most powerful nation on earth killing 3600 peoples in one fell sweep almost sacking the Pentagon – US powerhouse in what is now globally referred to as 9/11 did the opposition in the USA celebrate? Did they run down their country? Was that an indication of military decline? Didnt the whole world rise in support of the US to fight off the hoodlums? Why do Nigerians like Mr Akande derive joy in bashing their own country especially in time of national crisis? And the negativism has no age boundary. Mr Akande would be in his late 70s. Is this the type of legacy he would leave? Such a shame.
Wonderful! Abati now talking about someone running down Nigeria? Wasnt this his speciality for over a decade in The Guardian newspaper from where he was invited to the banquet in Aso Rock? Truly, food can change the mentality of man. Perhaps the President can silence Mr Akande by giving him a dummy portfolio like Ambassador Extra-Ordinary acredited to no-where big but meaningless post. Afterall we say in Yoruba 'the mouth that is eating does not talk'.