FORMER Lagos State Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu yesterday led some leaders of his party, the Action congress of Nigeria (ACN) in pouring invenctives on President Goodluck Jonathan.
Throwing traditional respects for the highest office in the land to the dustbin, Tinubu and declared that the President is a traitor and a liar.
Their verbal darts were in reaction to an earlier comment attributed to Jonathan that the South West is too important to be left in the hands of rascals, a statement that the president has since clarified. Jonathan has also spoken highly of the people of the geo-political zone, expressing surprise that words were being twisted from his mouth to suit negative intentions.
But Tinubu and some other leaders of the ACN who converged on the same historic Mapo Hall where Jonathan had spoken, roundly upbraided the president, describing him as an ungrateful personality who had been treacherous in his successive political ascension to the highest office in the land.
Tinubu led the pack of the ACN leaders when he mounted the rostrum, tongue-lashing the President for what he called an ‘uncouth’ statement.
He threw respect for the highest office of the land to the wolves and described the alleged statement of Jonathan as that of a drunkard. Tinubu also accused the PDP-led government at the centre of destroying the country in the last 12 years while calling on Nigerians to reject the ruling party at the April general elections.
Recalling how Jonathan became Acting Governor and Governor of Bayelsa State, Vice-President, Acting President and later President in a succession, Tinubu said that the President was a perfect example of a treacherous personality who, according to the former governor, betrayed his boss, the late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua.
Tinubu also said that Jonathan “lied to Nigerians that in 2011, he would not mind becoming a Vice-President again to a Northerner if God made it so.”
His words: “Jonathan is not the kind of person that we want as President of Nigeria. He is treacherous. He came here and called us rascals. We are rascals for progress, development and for all the good of our people…”
The president had last week explained
“We are not rascals, we are not bastards, he came here to abuse our parents; fathers and mothers alike. We are educated people. When did they start education and become civilized in their place, where he comes from? In Yorubaland here, since 1854, we have been producing lawyers, doctors, professors and technocrats in all the fields of human endeavours. Use your votes to reject them. Send them away. They have been ruling for the past 12 years, yet you don’t have good roads, no electricity, no water, unemployment is on the increase, insecurity gives room to kidnapping, no food on your table, it has been 12 years of deceit, lies and bad governance.”
The following is the verbatim reproduction of his explanation on the alleged ‘rascal’ comment.
“At my zonal presidential campaign rally in Ibadan, Oyo State, last Tuesday, I spoke about the place of the South-West in the Nigerian Federation. Without mincing words, I spoke about the level of education and sophistication in the region.
“In my opinion – and in the opinion of many informed Nigerians – the South-West is of critical significance to the economic and political advancement of the country. The progress of the zone is the progress of Nigeria. It makes perfect sense that such a critical segment of Nigeria is governed by those who have what it takes!
“These were my exact words as accurately captured by the Nigerian Tribune of Wednesday, February 9, 2011:
“The entire South-West is too important, too sophisticated and too educated to be in the hands of rascals.”
“I had referred here to the fact that unreliable or mischievous behaviours or notions ought not to be acceptable in any part of our body politic especially not in the South-West where the population has had the privilege of a head start in education compared to other parts of the country.
“It is unhelpful to public discourse if we constantly twist words beyond intended meaning. Surely, even the most zealous detractor of the interest of the South West would not desire that anyone would wish upon such a sophisticated part of our country, the activity of unreliable or mischievous intentions.
“In other words, I had indicated that abhorrence for such behaviour should be our proclivity, especially considering the disposition of the people of the Western States to governance standards.
“But by laying so much emphasis on the latter part of the sentence we dither profoundly on nuances, and this typifies the general tendency to dwell on the negative which we must, as a country, refrain from. My qualification of the West as highly educated and sophisticated was easily dispensed with, while the fact that we should not expose such civilized and educated populace to rascality was played more upon, with emphasis on the rascality.
“But we easily forget, perhaps because we have neglected for far too long the important role that our educational institutions play in development, that the foundations of our independence movement burgeoned its fruits from the discussions which emanated from the sophisticated? Ibadan School of thought? as the liberal Arts faculties of the then University College Ibadan was then known.
“However, as true leadership requires, I take responsibility for any misunderstanding of the context in which my statement was made. In a time of active politicking, when scoring political points have taken precedence over our overarching goal of nation building, we must not allow those strong bonds which tie us together as a nation, and which brought our people to the streets, for the common cause of seeing that the right thing is done by all and for all the people of our country – an ideal which the western part of Nigeria has always been in the fore-front of aspiring for – to be dispensed with by the mere nuance which we attach to words.
“The Western part of Nigeria by my estimation remains a very sophisticated and educated part of our dear country as sophisticated as the cultures in all other parts of our country and unique in its unequivocal stand for justice and equity. Therefore,as Architect Sambo and I move around the country seeking the mandate of our dear countrymen and women, we shall continue to respect and pay tribute to the hard work and patience of all our people. Our promise of a significant turnaround in the way our country operates and is governed is an article of faith.
“I made a commitment to Nigerians that our campaign will be about issues and livelihood advancement. I am determined to remain true to this commitment.
“In this regard, we made the promise and will zealously deliver on, amongst other things, a stable, constant supply of electricity which will revolutionise the way business is done in our country. We will pay special attention to the security of lives and property; we will focus on access to good quality health and education for all Nigerians and job creation for our youths, for this is the only way we can defeat poverty.
“We are focused on delivering on our commitment to agricultural and infrastructural development, the expansion of our economy and the complete transformation of our national security architecture in other to better secure lives and property in our Country.
“Let us all insist in building a united nation where justice, equityand the fundamental essence of freedom and democracy is sustained.”
Presenting Senator Abiola Ajimobi as the governorship candidate of the party in the state, Tinubu assured his listeners that all the good things going on in Lagos State would be replicated in Ibadan and Oyo State in general in no distant time.
He called on all Ibadan sons and daughters and other people across the other four geo-political zones of the state; Oyo, Ogbomoso, Ibarapa and Oke-Ogun areas to rise to the challenge, saying “this is the decision for your future, vote for struggle to freedom. This is the liberation struggle for all of you women and children. We are tired of bad governance of liars.
Ajimobi, according to Tinubu, will revolutionise agriculture for income earnings like the late Sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who used agriculture funds to institutionalise many of the legacies that the South-West is still proud of till date like the Liberty stadium (now Obafemi Awolowo Stadium), Cocoa House, NTA, Premier Hotel, State Secretariat at Agodi among others.
He said that school children would begin to enjoy free meals on daily basis like one egg, two slices of bread, fruit juice, mango juice, pineapple juice, per pupil, per day, stressing that all these products would be another venture for economic catalyst.
A former governor of the Oyo State too, Alhaji Lam Adesina, corroborated Tinubu over his remarks to Jonathan, stressing that truly the President is an ingrate, admonishing the people of the South-West to vote against him in the April polls.
Ajimobi assured the people of the state that if voted in as governor, he would ensure good governance and accountability and implement all the laudable programmes of the ACN in line with the Awolowo’s manifestos.
Highlight of the programme was the official declaration of many of the aggrieved PDP leaders led by a former Secretary to the State Government,Chief Sharafadeen Abiodun Alli, a factional Chairman of PDP, Alhaji Yunus Akintunde, serving members of the Federal House of Reeprsentatives like Alhaji Ayo Adeseun, Kamil Akinlabi, Tayo Oyetunji and the Oyo State Coordinator for Yar’Adua/Akala 2007 election, Asiwaju Yemi Aderibigbe.
Alli, a former ally of former Governor Rashidi Ladoja (now the governorship candidate of Accord Party) who spoke on behalf of the decampees assured ACN of victory just as he described the turn-out at the rally as “Mother” of them all, while comparing recent rallies of the PDP and the Accord.
Leading Fuji exponent, Alhaji Wasiu Ayinde (K1) added colours to the rally as he intermittently offered songs of victories for the ACN and eulogized the political sagacity of many of its leaders.
Among the dignitaries present at the rally were Governors Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, his Osun counterpart, Rauf Aregbesola , national officers of the party led by its Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, governorship candidate of the party in Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, a former National Chairman of the Alliance for Democracy, Chief Michael Koleosho, and many of the its candidates for the National Assembly and State Assembly.
Reacting to the ACN leaders’ statements, Governor Alao-Akala through his Special Adviser on Public Communication said, Prince Dotun Oyelade “the Ibadan rally as usual was bankrolled, organised and personified by the Chief rascal himself…Tinubu. Instead of scolding his surrogates for playing to our hands by using the same podium erected by the Akala campaign at Mapo for their own rally without the decency to construct their own, Jonathan has been proved right because decency and self-esteem, which is the hallmark of Yoruba have been utterly discarded by these characters by that singular insensitivity. The record of achievements of Akala will continue to haunt them until they stop to promise what they cannot give”
The president had immediately on his facebook page faulted the interpretation being given to his campaign speech, noting that he had great respects for people of the geo-political bloc.
Source: Compassnews
Tags:
Bola Tinubu,
Lagos,
Lagos State,
president jonathan
