TheCable

The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Sunday said President Goodluck Jonathan has shown that he would sacrifice the lives of Nigerians in order to realise his ambition for re-election.

The party was speaking of Saturday’s rally by pro-Jonathan group, Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria,  in Port Harcourt where cases of Ebola Virus Disease had been confirmed.

APC said Nigerians must hold the president responsible if Ebola spreads more than it has already done in the country, after he failed to stop the rally in his support in despite warnings from individuals and groups.

“Never before has a president of a country sabotaged his own administration’s policy and endangered the lives of his compatriots as President Jonathan has done over the issue of Ebola,” the party’s national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said in a statement.

“The same president who declared a national emergency on Ebola and advised against large gatherings to prevent the spread of the virus was the first to flout his own advice by his failure to stop the rally by the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) in Port Harcourt, a few days after the virus was detected in the city and at a time that contact tracing was going on to find all those who might have had contact with the medical doctor victim of the disease.

”On the altar of political desperation, President Jonathan put the lives of Nigerians in danger. In order to realise his ambition for re-election, President Jonathan has shown he is ready to sacrifice as many lives of Nigerians as possible. There goes the president’s statement that his political ambition is not worth the blood of any Nigerian. This president simply says what he doesn’t mean.

”As we said in our statement of August 28 calling on President Jonathan to halt the TAN rallies, especially the one in Port Harcourt, could anyone guarantee that none of those who have had contact with the medical doctor who died of the disease will attend the rally? That is why we are calling on Nigerians to hold the president responsible if Ebola spreads more than it has in the country.”

The APC said shortly after it made the call for a halt to the TAN rallies, others, including the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and Prof Itse Sagay issued similar calls.

”In fact, the APC in Rivers described such a rally most appropriately as a ‘firing squad against the people’. But because he will rather be re-elected than give a damn over the safety of the same people who voted him into office, because he will rather transmogrify than transform, President Jonathan ignored all the calls and allowed the rally to hold. This is an unprecedented act of political
desperation,” the party said.

It said for those who might try to spin the issue by saying the president had no control over the organisers of the rally, they should be asked who the rallies would benefit.

“Whose top officials, including secretary to the government Anyim Pius Anyim, had been attending the rallies? And what is the source of the funding of the gatherings?

”The TAN rallies are government-sanctioned. The TAN rallies are the Jonathan administration’s cunning way of beating the INEC ban on campaigns for next year’s general elections. The TAN rallies highlight the impunity of the Jonathan administration. President Jonathan is the sole beneficiary. He can stop the rallies today, if only he wants to put the nation’s interest above his own personal interest.”