The All Progressives Congress
and the Presidency returned to a familiar turf on Thursday as they
engaged each other in a war of words over the exchange of letters
between President Goodluck Jonathan and former President Olusegun
Obasanjo.
While the APC accused Jonathan of
desecrating his Presidency by responding in an indecent manner to
Obasanjo’s letter, the Presidency said it was the opposition party that
was doing a damage to the Presidency.
The APC , in a statement by its National
Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the President
crossed the threshold of decency and brought the Presidency – and indeed
the country -into disrepute by not exercising caution in its response
to the letter written to Jonathan by Obasanjo.
It added that Jonathan had further diminished the Presidency with the way he replied Obasanjo’s letter.
It argued that in other climes, the
President would have simply issued a terse response to such a letter
denying the allegations that border on national security, if any; as
well as saying the former President’s observations had been noted.
According to the APC , Jonathan should
have said the government would study the issues raised by Obasanjo
and then engage him in private.
A part of the statement reads,
‘’Instead, the President’s response read like the stuff of gossip
magazines, and the exchange of words felt like what one would have
expected in a beer parlour.
“At the end of the day, the Presidency
allowed Obasanjo to take the higher moral ground by simply insisting on
the allegations he made in his letter and saying he would not respond to
the Presidency’s reply.”
The APC said the President, who
accused Obasanjo of doing him a great injustice, had equally done a
great injustice to the Presidency, which it described as an institution
in which he (Jonathan) is only a tenant.
It added that in the end, “President of
Africa’s most populous nation, the leader of the foremost black nation
on earth and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria simply desecrated his own Presidency and allowed
those who can only be likened to gravy train passengers, rascals and
knaves to seize the initiative from him.”
The APC said this was what would
happen when a President was surrounded by those it described as
self-serving, bootlicking and dishonest people, at the expense of
seasoned technocrats and veteran policymakers.
The party said the President was not
unaware of this because he struggled in his letter to maintain some
minimum level of decorum, and then quickly lost control and engaged in a
bare-knuckle fight.
The opposition party said the
President himself knew that he ought not to have engaged in such
exchange when he wrote early on in his letter: ‘It is with the greatest
possible reluctance that I now write this reply. I am most uneasy about
embarking on this unprecedented and unconventional form of open
communication between me and a former leader of our country because I
know that there are more acceptable and dignified means of doing so.’
However, the APC said the President
quickly jettisoned such reluctance and, in an “unfortunate debasement of
the tone and quality of statecraft, went full blast, calling the former
President a liar, a conflict instigator and an unreliable ally, among
other inferred derogatory labels that may have now shut the window of
reconciliation between him and his political godfather, in addition to
portraying Nigerian leaders as delinquents.”
It added, ‘’To worsen matters, President
Jonathan could not restrain himself from using even the revered and
ecclesial platform provided by his appearance at a Church service on
Christmas Day to further lambast his critics and spew out hot words.”
This method, according to the APC,
is not what is expected of a President, a leader and anyone who
wants to be a nation builder.
But the Presidency did not take the
APC statement lightly as it said it was the opposition party and its
cohorts that were desecrating the Presidency.
It said Jonathan did no wrong by responding to the letter by Obasanjo.
The Special Adviser to the President on
Political Matters, Mr. Ahmed Gulak, said because the former President
raised germane issues in his 18-page letter, Nigerians were waiting
for the President to respond.
He said a letter that emanated from
Obasanjo could not be described as an ordinary one because he had
written to ex-Presidents in the past.
He said, “A letter from Obasanjo is not
an ordinary letter and the former President is not an ordinary person.
You know he has been writing former Presidents before now.
“He raised issues that were germane and
Nigerians were expecting the President’s response. The President has
therefore responded.
“There is nothing like desecration of
the Presidency in this matter. It is the APC and its cohorts who do not
see any difference between politics and national issues that are
desecrating the Presidency. Nigerians are wiser.”
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