Jonathan’s Desperation To Remove Tambuwal Undermining Anti-Terrorism War, Says APC

The All Progressives Congress has accused President Goodluck Jonathan of political desperation and sabotaging his own administration’s war against Boko Haram all in a bid to satisfy his selfish ambition.

The party said this desire is unbecoming of a self-respecting national leader.

In a statement in Abuja on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the APC said just because he was so desperate to remove Aminu Tambuwal as Speaker of House of Representatives, Jonathan ensured that the House could not meet as scheduled on yesterday to consider his request for an extension of the State of Emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.

It said, “For a President, who has severally stated his administration’s commitment to the battle against the insurgency in the North-East, is it not a cruel irony that he allowed his personal ego and political desperation to override his sense of propriety, by moving to have Rt. Hon. Tambuwal removed instead of having the House of Representatives sit to consider his request?

“Does anyone need any more evidence that the President’s sole preoccupation is how to win the 2015 elections, rather than the fate of the hundreds of Nigerians, who are daily being killed and maimed at the epicentre of the insurgency? Had he been genuinely committed to the fight against insurgency, would the President not have allowed the House to sit to consider his request? How does he feel now that the entire National Assembly has been shut down because of his capricious action?”

The opposition party noted that because of “his meddlesomeness” in the affairs of another arm of government, and also “his blatant disregard for a court order that the status quo be maintained on the issue of the defection of the Speaker to the APC, the President on Thursday suffered a moral and political defeat that would haunt him” for a long time to come.

The statement added, “The plot was simple: The Presidency decided to use the reconvening of the House as an opportunity to remove the Speaker. While Deputy Speaker Emeka Ihedioha was accorded a presidential ride into the premises of the National Assembly, House Speaker Tambuwal was barred from entering by the hordes of security agents who have been deployed solely for that purpose.

“Their plan was to ensure that with Tambuwal locked out, Ihedioha would preside over the reconvened House and the Speaker will then be removed. The consideration of the request to extend the State of Emergency was not important to the Presidency. The fate of the Nigerians who are suffering from the insurgency, which has displaced 1.5 million people, does not bother the Presidency. All it wanted is to remove Tambuwal”.