PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan’s office expressed outrage on Wednesday over what it described as opposition party Action Congress of Nigeria’s “deliberate..attempt to undermine, ridicule and debase the office of the President of the Federal Republic.”
The reaction from the president’s office was contained in a release signed by presidential spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati, who said that the President Jonathan would only be passing through Lagos enroute to a function in neighboring Ogun State.
“President Jonathan is only transiting through Lagos tomorrow on his way to the commissioning of the WEMPCO Cold Roll Steel Plant in Ibafo, Ogun State,” the release from the presidency read,adding that the kind of publicity being given the visit by the Action Congress of Nigeria amounted to “baseless wolf-crying.”
The opposition Action Congress of Nigeria had previously accused the president of working to undermine the party’s national convention holding in Lagos on Friday, saying that the president’s visit was scheduled to disrupt activities in the Lagos megapolis and truncate the ongoing process for opposition parties to merge forces against the president’s political party, the Peoples Democratic Party.
But Wednesday’s strong reaction from Dr. Abati on behalf of the president repudiated the Action Congress of Nigeria for making the accusation, wondering why any “patriotic, or right thinking Nigerian would have written the kind of publicly circulated letter reportedly sent to the Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola by the National Publicity Secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.”
“A courteous and simple discussion of the phantom potential conflict of programmes with appropriate officials of the Presidency would have sufficed,” Dr. Abati said in his signed press release.
“President Jonathan’s visit tomorrow which was scheduled long before the ACN convention will have absolutely no effect whatsoever on the convention as he will only touchdown at the airport, transit to Ibafo (miles away from the ACN convention venue) by chopper and return to the airport the same way for his flight back to Abuja,” the release pointed out.
Rejecting what it termed “insinuations” on the part of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Abati accused the opposition party of suffering from “paranoia”.
“The paranoia displayed by the ACN in its plea to Governor Fashola concerning an imaginary plan to scuttle a political merger is beneath the politics of inclusiveness this administration has encouraged in its interaction with the state, as with all other states of the Federal Republic.
Abati expressed confidence that Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola would dismiss of the charges by Action Congress of Nigeria, whom he described as “wiser and more mature” than the publicity secretary Lai Mohammed of the Action Congress of Nigeria.