GOVERNORS of the opposition (APC) have reportedly resolved to attend
the Wednesday enlarged security meeting called by President Goodluck
Jonathan over the Boko Haram issue, despite the misgivings over the
botched Thursday meeting.
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A source told Saturday Tribune on Friday that the governors decided to
attend the meeting in order not to allow the ruling Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) pin the Boko Haram tag on them in the public space as
being attempted by its chieftains.
Deep concern for public safety and peace in all the parts of the
country also reportedly informed their resolve. The caveat is that
they must be properly invited.
The party has, however, accused the president and the PDP of
politicising Nigeria's security by engaging in outright deception to
exclude APC governors from the Thursday meeting.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Friday by its Interim National
Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said after
deliberately excluding the governors from the meeting, the Presidency
and the PDP then engaged in outright disinformation and distortion of
facts to make it look as if the APC governors deliberately boycotted
the meeting, in an effort to make political gain from the whole issue.
"It is now clear that despite their inability to protect lives and
property and to stop the terrorist attacks in the country, the
Presidency and the PDP are not interested in any genuine efforts to
end the worsening security situation. It is patently obvious that
their aim is to make political capital out of the tragedy that has
befallen Nigeria, rather than to ameliorate the cruel fate being daily
suffered by the citizens," it said.
APC said the same Presidency that invited all state governors to the
expanded National Security Council meeting, which was announced via a
statement issued on April 16th by the president's Special Adviser on
Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, had no qualms in allegedly
duping the APC governors out of the meeting and turning it to a
parochial meeting of governors of the PDP and its satellite parties,
only to shift the blame on the same governors who were conned!
The party said after the Presidency publicly invited all state
governors to the meeting, it then clandestinely reached out to the APC
governors to say the meeting had been called off; only to turn around
and accuse them (APC governors) of shunning the meeting.
"The Kwara State government confirmed that its Chief Detail received a
call from the Presidency to the effect that the meeting had been
called off.
Then, the Deputy Governor of Borno State, who had already arrived in
Abuja for the meeting, also learnt that it had been called off.
Curiously, the meeting that was announced publicly by the Presidency
was not even listed among the president's official engagement for
Thursday.
"Despite all these glaring evidences of a grand plot to exclude APC
governors, the president's Assistant on New Media, Reno Omokri – the
same fellow who tried to malign the suspended Governor of the Central
Bank of Nigeria – took to Twitter to tell the world that the APC
governors shunned the meeting and accused them of playing politics
with national security.
"Unfortunately, while the fallacious Omokri was tweeting lies, the
Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, Governor Godswill Akpabio, was
telling journalists that the APC governors were not invited to the
meeting, and that it was initiated by the PDP governors (not minding
that the governors of states controlled by the All Progressive Grand
Alliance and Labour Party were in attendance).
"Who then is lying between the Presidency and the chairman of the PDP
Governors' Forum? Why would The Presidency engage in such a grand
design just to make the APC governors look bad? Is this a part of the
plan to shift the blame for the state of insecurity on the APC and to
make the party look bad ahead of the 2015 elections and the preceding
ones? Is this in furtherance of President Jonathan's improper blame of
the governors of the worst-hit states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe for
the insurgency in their states? Can any genuine efforts to resolve the
crisis exclude the governors of the three states?
"The Presidency is playing a dangerous game by seeking to make
political capital out of an insurgency that has claimed thousands of
lives, and done incalculable damage to property and the economy. It is
now clear that this Presidency has its eyes firmly fixed on
benefitting from the insurgency, and that it has no interest in any
genuine measures to end it.
"Were it not so, the Presidency and the PDP would not have attempted
to deceive the whole nation into believing that the APC governors
shunned a meeting to address the issue. Were it not so, President
Jonathan would not have been dancing in Kano, where he went on an
electioneering campaign, less than 24 hours after 75 of his
compatriots were killed in a bomb blast in Abuja, and even as school
girls were being abducted in Borno. Were it not so, the PDP would not
have acted so insensitively by blaming the opposition, even as the
nation was still grieving," it said.
APC, however, reiterated its earlier statement that in the overriding
interest of the nation, it was willing and ready to be part of all
genuine efforts to end the terrorist attacks, and that only a
non-partisan approach could end the security crisis....
