Presidency decries ACN attack on Jonathan

on MARCH 8, 2012 · in NEWS

BY BEN AGANDE

ABUJA – The Presidency,Thursday, decried what it said was a personal attack on President Goodluck Jonathan  and the office of the president by the Action Congress of Nigeria saying that the denigration of the office and person of the president is unhealthy for the country’s political landscape.

In a statement in Abuja, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati said the office of the President is a national institution that will surely outlive the current occupant.

Dr. Abati’s statement was in apparent response to a statement credited to the Spokesman of the  ACN,  Alhaji Lai Mohammed who allegedly advised President Jonathan “to take a long, hard look at himself in the mirror if he truly wants to see the face of a party leader who is fast turning his party into a one-man show”.

Alhaji Mohammed’s statement was in response to a statement credited to President Jonathan that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is the only truly democratic party in Nigeria.

The ACN spokesman was also quoted as accusing President Jonathan of failing to “show deep introspection in his public comments,” of  “rushing to exhibit soap-box mentality,” and calling him “a highly partisan and easily excitable President.”

But Dr Abati said ‘Far from being excitable, Jonathan has handled unprecedented attacks on his character and Presidency with dignity and hunour’

The statement reads:

“We consider this denigration of the Office and Person of the President in the name of opposition politics, as clearly unhealthy politics, and completely tactless. The ACN spokesman repeatedly resorts to personal attacks and disparaging remarks about the President.  It is Mohammed who needs to take a long, hard look at himself in the mirror and ask whether his party is truly a democratic party.

“President Jonathan is a humble gentleman who has shown his value at moments of deep crisis as a loyal and thoughtful leader. Recall his measured response and handling of the constitutional crisis in 2010. Far from being excitable, Jonathan has handled unprecedented attacks on his character and Presidency with dignity and hunour. A highly experienced, scholarly and non-partisan President Jonathan cannot fit into such negative space as cast by Mohammed.
“Only national interests have dictated this President’s governance policies, choice of states to visit and events to attend, as exemplified by his consecutive visits to ACN-controlled Ogun State to commission cement factories and attending the burial of the late Ikemba Nnewi, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu in APGA-controlled Anambra State.

“The Office of the President is a national institution that must survive its temporary occupants. Those who seem to be deriving childish excitement from attacking the President, under the guise of playing politics, should refrain from bringing that institution into disrepute.  The time for electioneering campaigns and trying to score cheap political points, by any means possible,  must be separated from the time for delivering dividends of democracy.

“The occupant of the Number One office in the land is father of all and not of one party. President Jonathan’s description of the PDP as the only truly democratic party should be seen as  a wake-up call to other political parties, as well as political leaders,  to live out their democratic pretensions in the full glare of the public. Is it not public knowledge that some political parties, despite preaching democracy, lack internal democracy and thrive in imposing candidates? Indeed, we have seen a dominant culture whereby wives, children, in-laws and other family members emerge as candidates without credible primaries in the same political parties that the President complained about” he concluded.

SOURCE: Vanguard Newspapers, 8 March 2012. http://www.vanguardngr.com/