Ribadu is an ethically challenged hypocrite – Presidency

[PeoplesDaily]

By Udenna Orji

The battle for 2015 took a new dimension yesterday with a no-holds-barred response by the Presidency to All Progressive Congress (APC) Chieftain, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu's description of President Goodluck Jonathan's government as a "sinking ship."

Dr. Reuben Abati, Special Adviser to President Jonathan on Media and Publicity, in a statement yesterday said, "the Presidency totally rejects the false, hypocritical and self-serving claim by Mallam Nuhu Ribadu at a lecture in Kaduna on Saturday that Nigeria under President Goodluck Jonathan is a "sinking ship" in which the yearnings of the masses are being neglected by a tyrannical leadership.

"We find it very sad and utterly deplorable that Nuhu Ribadu has resorted to shameless wolf-crying, the peddling of arrant falsehood and the denigration of the elected government of his fatherland in furtherance of his selfish quest for continued national political relevance after his wholesale rejection by Nigerian voters in 2011."

The Presidency noted that, "it is very unfortunate indeed that the once highly respected former EFCC Chairman has now taken to political prostitution and developed a penchant for irresponsible and reckless utterances aimed at improving the electoral fortunes of his new friends and "leader", who he once famously denounced as a crook who is "not fit to hold public office.

"There can be no doubt that nothing else but blind ambition for an office for which he is clearly unfit is driving Ribadu to infer that an Administration led by a President who welcomed him back to the country after his self-imposed exile, restored his rank in the Nigeria Police to save him from the shame of demotion and converted his dismissal from service to retirement has now become tyrannical and anti-people.

"If Nuhu Ribadu wants to talk of tyranny then he should talk of the days when he orchestrated the impeachment of governors with an illegitimate quorum of legislators who had been threatened by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) under his watch.

"It beats the imagination that Nuhu Ribadu, a man who once presided over an EFCC which in 2007 compiled a list of disqualified politicians aspiring for office without a court order or legal backing now has the guts to accuse the man under whom Nigeria has had the most credible elections in this Fourth Republic of being the leader of a "sinking ship."

"Nothing else but misguided ambition could have driven Ribadu to urge Nigerian youth to rise up and save the country from an administration which he willingly served recently, but which he now duplicitously and insincerely claims is "imposing private interests on the majority.

"It is certainly the height of hypocrisy for Ribadu who built his entire reputation as an anti-corruption crusader by completely disregarding the rule of law and recklessly trampling on the rights of perceived enemies of the government of the day, to now accuse an administration that has consistently upheld the rule of law and respect for fundamental human rights of being tyrannical."

The post Ribadu is an ethically challenged hypocrite – Presidency appeared first on Peoples Daily Newspaper, Nigeria.

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[Folami David]

Wow! That would really hurt I must say.
Not a very good one at all.
Sad!