Some northern groups have described the planned campaign trip to the
North-East as belated, ill-timed and insensitive.
They said for the President to go and campaign to a people who were
traumatised by his lack of concern for their plight was, to say the least, “
immoral, irresponsible and callous.”
The spokesperson for the Northern Elders Forum, Prof. Ango Abdullahi,
expressed shock at the reported plan by the President to embark on a campaign
trip to the troubled region. He said it was left for the people of the area to
let their guest know how they feel.
According to him, it beats the imagination that the President, who gives
every excuse under the sun to stay away from the North-East, has suddenly
developed courage because of his re-election bid.
Abdullahi said, “It will be immoral for the President to go to the
North-East in the name of campaign when he has been unable to visit the people
for the three years they have suffered from the wanton destruction of their
lives and property by the Boko Haram sect.
“It is left for the people of the North-East to show him how they feel.
If you recall, Jonathan was quoted as asking where Bama is.
“We have a President who does not know the geography of the country.
Maybe his friend, former Governor of Borno State, Ali Sherriff, will show him
the way.”
Second Republic federal lawmaker and a Kano State delegate to the
just-concluded National Conference, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, said he had nothing
but contempt for the President and his handlers, especially when it had to do
with the issue of national security.
He said, “I never thought that we could have a President who is this
insensitive, who is this irresponsible, who is this irredeemably shameless.
“It is now clear to me that politics and this political gamesmanship is
the primary purpose of this guy’s life.
“Human life does not mean anything to him, since the advent of the Boko
Haram insurgency, the massive killings and abductions of young Nigerians, he
has not even genuinely commiserated with these people.
“What is available to him today in terms of security was available to
him three years ago when the insurgency began to spiral out of control.”
Mohammed appealed to all men of goodwill, including foreign powers
interested in the development of Nigeria to tell the President that the lives
of Nigerians are worth much more than his political ambition.
The spokesperson for the All Progressives Congress, Alhaji Lai Muhammed,
said that whether it is morally right or not for Jonathan to seek the support
of the traumatised Chibok parents many months after he had failed to rescue
their children from the terrorists’ den should be left for Nigerians to judge.
“We cannot always be the judge; we are going to allow Nigerians to be
the judge in this case. Let Nigerians judge the issue,” he said.
The Secretary of the Borno Elders’ Forum, Bulama Gubio, doubted that the
residents would warmly welcome Jonathan because the President had not visited
the traumatised parents of Chibok girls since their children were abducted on
April 14, 2014.
Gubio, however, said the President was welcome in the North-East because
he is a Nigerian and not necessarily because he is the leader of the country.
He said, “Let him come, he is a Nigerian; he is welcome. If all he wants
to do here is to come and campaign, let him come and do so, at least he is a
Nigerian and he has the right.
“Those who will receive him, if there are, will receive him because he
is the President. But really, we don’t see ourselves as Nigerians again. If
there are people here who feel they are still Nigerians, they will receive
him.”
On the security crisis in Borno State, Gubio said many youths were
losing their lives daily to the Boko Haram insurgency as they were confronting
the terrorists.
He said, “We are doing our best; we are praying to God. We don’t think
of any President now because there is none who is doing anything for us now.
Our youths are helping some of the military personnel here to fight the
insurgents.
“Many of us have children in the military and in the vigilante group and
they are ready to lay down their lives for us; they are doing the best that
they can. We are losing many of them, we are not happy, but we have to keep
fighting.”
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Politics