CITING the provision of Section 137 (1) of the constitution, the presidency, on Sunday, said President Goodluck Jonathan is qualified to contest the 2015 presidential election, contrary to claims by the interim national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande, that he was statute-barred.
The APC boss had been widely quoted in the media at the weekend as saying that Jonathan could not contest in 2015, because it would amount to a third term.
But, in a reaction to the claim, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, in a statement issued in Abuja, on Sunday, posited that the president was eligible to contest by virtue of the section of the constitution, which states that “a person shall not be qualified for election to the office of president if; (b) he has been elected to such office at any two previous elections.”
According to the statement, “Jonathan has been elected into office only on one occasion and is, therefore, not statute-barred from running.”
It said though the president had not indicated whether or not he was interested in a second term, Akande, who it said had taken stock of his party and seen that it had no electable presidential material, was already trying “to be clever by half, by claiming the president is statute-barred from contesting in 2015.”
The presidency said if this was the winning strategy of APC, Akande had every reason to panic, because the issue of eligibility for election into the office of the president had been settled by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended.
The presidency noted with dismay what it said was the continuation of efforts by leaders of the opposition to promote themselves and their party through “the irresponsible denigration of President Jonathan and the exalted office of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
According to the statement, “the interim national chairman of APC, Chief Akande, sank to a new low in this regard yesterday (Saturday) when he rudely and falsely described President Jonathan as a kindergarten leader who treats national issues with levity.
“Chief Akande has every right to embark on a flight of fancy about APC beating the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2015 general election, but he does no justice to his age and status when he resorts to propagating falsehood, wilfully insulting the president of his country, impugning his integrity and desecrating the very office which his party wishes to take over in 2015 by fair or foul means.
“We urge Chief Akande and his fellow-travellers to remember that there are laws against libel and defamation of character in this country, even if there are no legal impediments to indecorous, hypocritical and unpatriotic vituperations.
“It is certainly rude, ill-mannered, uncharitable and hypocritical for Chief Akande to falsely allege that a president, who toils tirelessly every day of the week, evolving and implementing workable solutions to Nigeria’s problems, is handling national issues with levity.
“Also, nothing else but gross ignorance and lack of consideration could have led Chief Akande to refer to a president who, having served as deputy governor, governor, vice president and president, has far more experience of governance at the highest level than him and his preferred candidates, as a kindergarten leader.
“By his very unguarded and intemperate outburst yesterday, Chief Akande exhibited not only an unbecoming lack of respect for the person and office of the president of his country, but also a complete disregard for the patriotic feelings of the millions of Nigerians who voted for President Jonathan and who continue to appreciate his sincere efforts to positively transform the nation.
“It is very sad and unfortunate that unbridled ambition for the office they constantly impugn and denigrate has blinded Chief Akande and his ilk to the visible accomplishments of the Jonathan presidency.”
“Certainly, nothing else but a manic and unscrupulous quest for power could have led them to make such accusations against a president who, who amongst other significant achievements, has been praised for his handling of the insurgency in some parts of northern Nigeria, where he has used a combination of diplomacy and targeted military force to contain the security threat.
“Nothing else but the relentless pursuit of narrow personal and sectional interests could lead them to make such claims about a president under whose leadership Nigeria’s economy has been promoted from a low income economy to a middle income economy by the World Bank and whose leadership has seen the Gross Domestic Product of Nigeria increase at an annual rate of over six per cent since he took office.”
The statement further posited that it was clear that APC was seeking to bait the presidency to respond to it so that it could, among other things, divert the attention of the public from the festering feud between Muhammadu Buhari and Bola Tinubu over their overriding ambition, which, it said, was threatening to tear the new party.
“To the discerning, it is only a matter of time before ambition sinks APC boat. It is only 2013 and already the big masquerades in the party are using undemocratic words and other military terms in discussing their presidential ticket,” it added.
The statement advised APC leader to treat party “like a democratic association and don’t mistake it for the Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) that someone used to force his way to power.”
Meanwhile, the presidency, on Sunday, rejected accusations of ethnic and religious bigotry levelled against President Goodluck Jonathan by former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, who it described as a “serial liar.”
A statement issued by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, in Abuja, on Sunday, described as wild, the allegations the ex-minister made during a radio interview monitored by national dailies.
According to the statement, “this most recent interview, like others he gave in the past, only shows that el-Rufai is a serial liar and the facts of history bear me witness.
“el-Rufai accused President Jonathan of playing ethnic and religious politics, however, any objective watcher of the president knows that this is untrue.
“For instance, the Muslim Ummah just emerged from the Ramadan fast and the president, though a Christian, joined them in fasting and severally broke the fast with Muslims at the Presidential Villa.
“Also, in the history of the existence of Nigeria as a nation, no leader has spent the quantum of funds that President Jonathan has spent on education specifically tailored for Islamic itinerant scholars known as the almajiri.
“In the composition of his cabinet, the president has appointed Muslims into sensitive positions and ensured a balance that has been commended by many in the Islamic fold.
“But it is most curious that this allegation is coming from Nasir el-Rufai, a man who profaned the name of Jesus Christ on Twitter by tweeting a joke which is too indecent to mention in the presence of civilised persons.
“This same el-Rufai is the same man who, in June of last year, claimed that Christians were behind the bombings of their own churches rather than terrorists and were doing this to further a Christian agenda.
“It is only a measure of his inconsistency that el-Rufai is today accusing the presidency of being afraid of General Muhammadu Buhari whom the same el-Rufai said was perpetually un-electable.”
The statement added that “in fact, the accusation el-Rufai is now making against the president is precisely the same accusation he made against General Buhari on October 4, 2010, when he said Buhari’s insensitivity to Nigeria’s diversity and his parochial focus are already well-known. Today, el-Rufai is serving this same Buhari.”
The presidency added that a proof that el-Rufai was not above lying to the media to achieve his political objective was proven in Segun Adeniyi’s book, “Power, Politics and Death,” when el-Rufai was quoted to have confessed in the presence of multiple witnesses still alive today that “there was no cabal, we created the myth to neutralise Turai (Yar’Adua).”
The presidency, in the statement, added that “we have a record of what el-Rufai truly thinks of President Jonathan from a leaked secret diplomatic memo from the United States embassy in Abuja, which revealed that just before the April 2007 presidential election, el-Rufai had told the then US ambassador to Nigeria that the then vice presidential candidate, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, was clean and honest.”
It also carpeted el-Rufai over his comment on the vice president, Alhaji Namadi Sambo, saying that it was unfortunate.
The report quoted el-Rufai as describing the administration of Sambo in Kaduna State as a disaster, purporting that the vice president, as a former governor of Kaduna State, incurred a huge debt profile that compelled his successor to complain.
“At no time did the late Governor Patrick Yakowa ever accuse the vice president of incurring any huge debt during his tenure as governor of Kaduna State.
“For the records, when the vice president was in charge as governor of Kaduna, the state never borrowed a penny from any quarters. The efforts to generate cheap funds for development, which he applied for, were just recently approved by the Islamic Development Bank for the state,” the statement added.
It advised Nigerians to subsequently take el-Rufai’s words with not just a pinch of salt, but a spoonful, because “a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.”
Culled: Nigeria Tribune