(http://peoplesdailyng.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/bola-tinubu-274x300.jpg) (http://peoplesdailyng.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/bola-tinubu.jpg)By Lawrence Olaoye
President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday described the national leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu, as an unpatriotic Nigerian and his party undemocratic.
Responding to an address delivered at the British House of Commons recently by the former Lagos state Governor, the President who spoke through his Senior Special Adviser on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, noted that the presentation was marred by several inconsistencies, political razzmatazz and utter falsehoods.
Okupe in a World Press Conference held in Abuja said "as any keen and discerning observer on Nigeria's democracy will attest, Senator Tinubu and his ACN are completely lacking in democratic temper. The ACN as a party is not only undemocratic but blatantly autocratic and makes no presences about it."
He said Tinubu could only assert, as he did in his presentation in London, that Jonathan's leadership is dysfunctional democracy because the ACN leadership's understanding of democracy is tainted and skewed by his undemocratic mindset, which has seen him exert authoritarian control over the party.
According to the Presidential aide, the former Lagos state governor could not be referred to as a patriot because of his opposition to the declaration of state of emergency in the North Eastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states at the height of the activities of the Boko Haram insurgents in the region.
He said, "Nigerians know for a fact that if it were left to Tinubu and his party, the terrorists would be having a free reign in the north-east of Nigeria.
"It is public knowledge that whilst peace loving Nigerians fully supported the declaration of emergency rule by President Jonathan in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, the ACN and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), one o its merging partners, opposed the move going as far as calling on the National Assembly to reject the declaration.
"That is why we regrettably disagree with Senator Tinubu's labeling himself as a patriot.
"As everyone well knows, patriots are concerned with the image, the well-being and survival of their country and will do everything in their power to protect same even if they have political differences with heir governments."
Okupe who noted that Jonathan remains the most unjustifiably maligned leader in the history of the country also counseled the ACN national leader to adopt higher standard of integrity as a former governor and political leader.
He maintained that Tinubu's paper delivered in London lacked a fundamental understanding of both democratic norms and sound economic judgment.
"His Third Path blueprint for economic transformation is nothing but a hollow ideological concept.
"As the ACN national leader has failed to realize, the world has moved away from ideologies in favour of pragmatic and result oriented policies, which impact meaningfully on the lives of the people," he said.
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