BY Fredrick Nwabufo
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has slammed President Goodluck Jonathan for appropriating the #BringBackOurGirls hash-tag as a reelection campaign slogan – #BringBackGoodluck2015 – and for waiting until international condemnation before calling for an end to its use.
However, the party described the president’s order ending the slogan has “a good first step”.
President Jonathan on Wednesday ordered the removal of #BringBackGoodluck2015 signs and banners around Abuja, which he described as offensive and repugnant.
“The president made a mockery of his administration and his country by waiting for an international condemnation of the shameless and brazen usurpation of the #BringBackOurGirls hash tag before issuing the directive for it to stop,” the APC said through its national publicity secretary on Wednesday.
”Had the US newspaper Washington Post not written a stinging editorial skewing the Jonathan administration for appropriating the BringBackOurGirls hash-tag for his reelection, the administration would have continued its brazenness without regards to the feelings of the parents of the girls or indeed the Nigerian people.
”Again, the administration has waited for a global opprobrium before doing what is right. Recall that it took an international media campaign before the Jonathan administration acknowledged, after all of 19 days, that the Chibok girls were missing in the first instance. Recall also that it took a 17-year-old, Yousafzai Malala, to make the president realise that he should meet with the parents of the girls, even if he eventually insulted the grieving parents by inviting them to Abuja instead of going to visit them in their abode? It is important that we don’t make a mockery of our own people, so that we don’t become an object of international mockery.”
The party said belated as the president’s directive on #BringBackGoodluck hash tag was, “it is a good first step that must be quickly followed by another directive ordering the so-called Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) to immediately stop its rallies that have offended the sensibilities and intelligence of Nigerians”.
It said the “noisy and sycophantic” rallies being held across the nation, to collect signatures from Nigerians urging the president to seek re-election, contrast with the challenges currently facing the nation, which is being dismembered town by town by Boko Haram.
”Nigeria is in a state of war, a state of anarchy, a state of loss never witnessed since the end of the unfortunate civil war in 1970. Terrorists are capturing towns after towns and hoisting their flags over the seized territories, our troops are engaged in an epic battle to ward off the terrorists. Our people are being daily slaughtered by the marauding terrorists. And Ebola is very much here with us,” the APC said.
”Therefore, this cannot be the time for festivities and celebrations, the type being orchestrated by the government under the TAN banner. The rallies insult the troops who are battling Boko Haram. The rallies insult Nigerians who are fervently praying for the unity of the nation in the face of the madness by the marauders. The rallies offend the sensibilities of the families of our citizens who are being mowed down daily by Boko Haram. They must stop forthwith.”
The party wondered “whether the organisers of the rallies and those who had been mocking the #BringBackOurGirls campaigners know that Nigerians are not fools, hence could see the deceit, the callousness and the insensitivity of the Jonathan administration in secretly funding the rallies and the anti-BringBackOurGirls campaigns.”
”Really, what makes the president and his backers think he should be brought back? Is it because he is presiding over the dismemberment and humiliation of a once proud nation? Is it because he presides over an administration that is monumentally corrupt, that cannot account for $20bn in oil money that cannot successfully prosecute anyone over a 1 trillion oil subsidy fraud? Is it because of an unparalleled incompetence that has led to a massive decay in infrastructure and lack of jobs for our youth? Or is it because he has exposed Nigeria to unprecedented global ridicule?” it queried.
”There must be a limit to the desperation of a President to win re-election at all cost. There must be a political price to pay for a President who would willfully subvert the Constitution he swore to uphold. There must be some introspection by a President who will be jetting around with an alleged sponsor of terrorism. As we have warned before, when a drum is beating too hard, it is about to burst. President Jonathan must take a moment to reflect, to realize that he can only preside over a country that remains whole, not one that has been fractured or bombed out of existence by terrorists.”
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