THE
Presidency on Thursday accused former Lagos State governor and leader of Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Senator Bola Tinubu, of lying over his remarks at an
event in London where he presented President Goodluck Jonathan as incapable of
tackling the challenges confronting the country.
Addressing
a news conference in Abuja on Thursday, Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the
President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, noted that at a time Tinubu’s new
political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) was battling
unsuccessfully to produce a new set of leadership, Tinubu was in London telling
lies about the Jonathan’s administration.
Saying
that government has noted “several inconsistencies, political razzmatazz and
utter falsehoods contained in the address,” Okupe said Tinubu’s remarks were
not only wide off the mark but betrayed the hypocrisy “for which the national
leader of ACN and his party have become very well known.”
He said
that the ACN leader’s claim that “everyone claims to be democratic but not
everyone is faithful to his or her word,” was “a clear case of self-indictment,”
arguing that “any keen and discerning observer of Nigeria’s democracy will
attest that Senator Tinubu and his ACN are completely lacking in democratic
temper.”
Okupe
remarked that the ACN as a party was not only undemocratic but blatantly
autocratic and makes no pretenses about it, saying “it is clear that ACN
leadership’s understanding of democracy is tainted and skewed by his
undemocratic mindset, which has seen him exert authoritarian control over the
party. With such disposition, it is easy to understand his warped and defective
reading of the democratic situation in Nigeria.”
According
to the Presidential aide, that paper that Nigeria under the leadership of
Jonathan was a dysfunctional democracy was not only the height of ignorance but
equally of unbridled mischief.
He
added: “Tinubu must be talking of an imaginary Nigeria not the Nigeria we all
know and live in. His submission on our democracy is nothing but wild
conjecture, completely unrelated to reality.
“For
the records, the Nigerian democracy is robust, vibrant and unattenuated. Unlike
the ACN chieftain would have us believe, Nigerian democracy does not stand in
any dark.
Source: Tribune
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