The All Progressives Congress has described as utterly callous and insensitive, the ongoing campaign by the so-called GEJites, a pro-Jonathan group, for the President’s re-election right at the same spot where the ‘Bring Back Our Girls’ campaigners have been staging daily protests and sit-outs for the safe return of the over 200 schoolgirls.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, APC said the message being conveyed to all Nigerians is that the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan takes priority over anything else, including the security and welfare of citizens.
It said, “Were this not to be so, no responsible group will choose this time, when over 200 schoolgirls have been missing for over 80 days and the terror group Boko Haram is daily killing and maiming Nigerians, to launch a misguided re-election campaign for the President.
“If their daughters were among the missing school girls, will they be launching a political campaign for re-election rather than pushing for the girls’ release?
“To show their contempt for decency and as if they were intent on inflicting more pain on the parents and guardians of the missing girls, they decided to position their campaign instrument, wheel-mounted electronic billboards, right at the Unity Fountain in Abuja where committed and patriotic Nigerians have been holding their own daily campaign for the safe return of the girls”.
The opposition party said much as it may deny, it is clear that the Jonathan Administration that has surpassed itself in sheer cluelessness in providing purposeful leadership to stop the daily carnage in the country and ensuring the return of the missing girls, has apparently been secretly funding different groups to campaign for it.
It said, “First there is the Protectors of Nigerian Posterity, then the Goodluck Initiative for Transformation 2015 and now the GEJites.
“With the expensive newspaper, television and Social Media adverts that these nebulous groups are running, it is clear they are being financed from a bottomless war chest, to which taxpayers have been unwilling contributors.
“It is sad that a government that apparently cannot adequately fund the war on terror, a government that has lost the initiative to terrorists, a government that cannot provide jobs for its teeming army of unemployed, a government that is running Nigeria aground has suddenly found huge funds to engage in a re-election campaign that is going nowhere, touting tokenism as achievements”.
APC said if the administration does not endorse the callousness and insensitivity of the groups, it should waste no time in publicly denouncing them and then call them to order.
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