At
the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), we have noted the cavalier,
but utterly fatuous, statement by Dr Doyin Okupe, the Presidential
Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs, as a reaction to the
assertion of our National leader, General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB). It
would be recalled that, at an interactive session with
Journalists after the CPC Board of
Trustees’ meeting on Wednesday, November 07, 2012, GMB had unambiguously
labeled this PDP government of President Goodluck Jonathan as the
author of the political variant of Boko-Haram.
At a Channels’ interview session on
Thursday, November 08, 2012, Dr Okupe abandoned reason as a tool for
dialectical engagement (based on verifiable fact) and sounded like a
broken record in mouthing the same over-used propaganda (not based on
substantiated fact) that GMB incited his supporters to resort to
violence during the 2011 electioneering campaigns. He said inter-alia:
“during the election, during the
campaign, General Buhari himself campaigned for violence, so it is too
late in the day to try to back track. Those who sow wind should not try
and start and begin to look good.”
It was this same capricious but
unfounded falsity that Dr Reuben Abati, his colleague in the business of
image laundering project for President Good-luck Jonathan, wrote in his
Guardian Newspaper column in May 2011; the subject of a libelous
litigation that Abati is desperately making attempts to untangle himself
from.
For the sake of preserving the
records from the desperate attempts of revisionists in the Nation’s
power corridor, let us examine again the facts that stare us in the face
about the consanguinity of this PDP-led Federal Government of President
Good-luck Jonathan with the Political Boko-Haram that had, in the last
two years, inflicted incalculable damage on the essence of our
Nationhood.
Fact one- Since the advent of the
fourth republic which effectively started on May 29, 1999, aside the
agitation of the Niger-delta militants for resource control, there had
not been any structured infrastructure for mass attack on innocents and
religious institutions as had been seen in the last twenty-five months.
While Dr Good-luck Jonathan was
still vying for the Presidential nomination of his Party, People’s
Democratic Party (PDP), there was a bomb blast near the Eagle Square,
Abuja during the Independence anniversary celebration on October 1,
2011.
Whilst the dust was still settling
on an infamy that claimed innocent lives with many others severely
wounded and without any preliminary report from the security agencies on
the incident, the President (Dr Goodluck Jonathan) spoke: “It is not
MEND.”
A perspicacious check on the
President’s statement would suggest that he had prior knowledge of the
source of the blast. Of course, in the succeeding days, the Campaign
Manager of one of the Political elements (from Northern Nigeria) that
was contesting the party nomination with him was invited for questioning
by the Nation’s secret service as a way to deflect public gaze towards
him.
When he withdrew his candidacy, the
president quickly incorporated his campaign manager into the ‘Good-luck
Jonathan campaign’ organization!
Fact two- In May 2011, Dr Reuben
Abati, then Chairman, Editorial Board of Guardian Newspapers and Friday
columnist of the same tabloid, wrote a piece in which he laid the blame
of the post-election violence of April 2011 elections at the doorsteps
of GMB. It did not matter to the writer that he had no empirical
evidence to support his impudent assertion.
Curiously, it was upon this decrepit
literary predication that all other spurious attempts (on the
Cyber-space and Nation-space) were based. After President Jonathan was
sworn in on May 29, 2011, he replaced his former Special Adviser on
Media and Publicity, Ima Niboro, with Dr Reuben Abati! The question is:
was this appointment a fitting reward to Dr Abati for the hatchet job of
assisting to blacken GMB’s pedigree?
Fact Three- On Friday, August 26,
2011, the United Nations’ building in Abuja was bombed by a suicide
bomber, leaving trail of several fatalities and many others with serious
injuries. Asked if the attack has adverse effect on the image of
Nigeria, the president said, “Of course, wherever you have terrorist
attack in any country, Nigeria is not an isolated case. Many countries
have suffered from terrorists attacks, may be it is the turn of Nigeria.
But we are on top of the situation”.
On the first year anniversary of the
bombed UN building, the government of Dr Good-luck Jonathan provided
N3.2Billion to rehabilitate the UN house, made up of N2.6 Billion to
start the building and N600Million to provide temporary accommodation,
in addition to promised refund of $580,000 for the treatment of victims.
It did not really matter to this
profligate PDP government that the United Nations, in its world-wide
operations, has comprehensive insurance for its buildings and workers,
even against terrorism! Was the offer by the government of Dr Good-luck
Jonathan made because, “it is Nigeria’s turn for terrorism?”
Fact Four- In January 2012,
President Good-luck Jonathan told a bewildered nation, still smarting
from the spate of murderous bombings in the Northern parts of the
country, that his government has been infiltrated by Boko-Haram. The
cogent questions are: How did the President know this as a fact? With
the elaborate surveillance and espionage infrastructure under his watch,
why has the Nation not been informed on the unmasking of these fifth
columnists in his government?
Since the preponderance of the
cabinet members in his government consist of Party folks, has this
challenge been finally resolved in the usual PDP ‘family’ affair?
Fact Five- In February, 2012,
Mohammed Ali Ndume, a serving PDP Senator from Borno South, was arrested
for links with Boko Haram. In March 2012, the Senator deposed to an
affidavit, wherein he stated that all his activities with Boko-Haram are
known to the Nation’s Vice-President, Mr Namadi Sambo.
There had not been any official rebuttal on the assertion, which realistically connotes acquiescence!
Fact Six- In April 2012, the
erstwhile National Security Adviser to the President, General Andrew
Azazi stated with a gusto that is devoid of ambiguity that Boko-Haram is
PDP. It is a known fact that, as things stand today, President
Good-luck Jonathan is the Leader of PDP!
Fact Seven- In April 2012, Henry
Okah, the leader of the Niger-delta militancy group (MEND), deposed to
an affidavit before a South African court that President Good-luck
Jonathan was the sponsor of the October 1, 2011 bomb blast near Eagle
square. There had not been any official rebuttal from the Nation’s
Presidency!
Fact Eight- In October 2012, Mr
James Ineh, an Assistant Director with the State Security Services
(SSS), told a Federal High Court that Senator Ali Mohammed Ndume gave
Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice
Mohammed Adoke’s telephone number to the Boko Haram. The raison d’etre
for this reprehensible behavior was to ensure that the AGF influenced
the Borno Election Tribunal to favour PDP’s cause!
As a Party, we have often counseled
that the churlish demeanor of Dr Doyin Okupe is deleterious to the
Jonathan regime. The nauseous, intemperate and inane mannerism of Dr
Doyin Okupe as a Presidential aide is a collective disgrace to us as
Nigerians. Whilst it is understandable that there is usually a strong
desire to desperately hold on to a rehabilitative Presidential
appointment -in a clime bedeviled with festering deprivation and
corruption- there is nothing noble in talking when there nothing to be
said.
The penchant for Dr Okupe in
attacking whatever GMB says, with concomitant jettisoning of reason, is
despicable and stands condemned. The good that the President can do to
himself will definitely not be in pandering to the obsequious apologists
around him like Dr Okupe but in properly distilling the well-meaning
pieces of advice of acknowledged Patriots like GMB!
God bless Nigeria.
Rotimi Fashakin (Engr.)
National Publicity Secretary, CPC.
Elombah.com
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