The All Progressives Congress on
Wednesday described the order by
President Goodluck Jonathan for the
removal of the #BringBackJonathan
campaign bill boards as belated.
The party however described the
order as a good first step but that it
fell short of what Nigerians expected
from the President.
The National Publicity Secretary of
the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed,
said this in a statement he issued via
an e-mail from London.
The party described the
#BringBackJonathan as a mockery of
the #BringBackOurGirls hash tag
that had helped to call global
attention to the fate of the over 200
girls who were abducted by Boko
Haram almost five months ago and
remain in captivity.
According to the statement, the
President made a mockery of his
administration and his country by
waiting for international
condemnation of the “shameless
and brazen usurpation of the
#BringBackOurGirls hash tag before
issuing the directive for it to stop.”
The statement partly read, “Had the
US newspaper, Washington Post, not
written a stinging editorial skewing
the Jonathan administration for
appropriating the BringBackOurGirls
hash tag for his re-election, the
“administration would have
continued its brazenness without
regards to the feelings of the parents
of the girls or indeed the Nigerian
people.
“Again, the administration has
waited for a global opprobrium
before doing what is right.”
The party noted that it took an
international media campaign
before the Jonathan administration
acknowledged, after all of 19 days
that the Chibok girls were missing in
the first instance.
It also recalled that the President
only agreed to meet with parents of
the abducted girls after the
intervention of the 17-year-old
Yousafzai Malala.
It equally noted that the President
eventually insulted the grieving
parents by inviting them to Abuja,
instead of going to visit them in their
abode.
The party also said belated as the
President’s recent directive was, it
remained a good first step that must
be quickly followed by another
directive ordering the “so-called”
Transformation Ambassadors of
Nigeria, to immediately stop its
offensive rallies.
APC stressed that the TAN rallies,
which have assaulted the
sensibilities of Nigerians, did not take
into account the security challenges
currently facing the nation.
“Nigeria is in a state of war, a state
of anarchy, a state of loss never
witnessed since the end of the
unfortunate civil war in 1970.
“Terrorists are capturing towns after
towns and hoisting their flags over
the seized territories. Our troops are
engaged in an epic battle to ward off
the terrorists,” the party added.
The APC further explained that “our
people are being daily slaughtered
by the marauding terrorists. And
Ebola is very much here with us as
such, this cannot be time for
festivities.”
It maintained that the rallies
embarked upon by TAN insulted the
troops who were battling Boko
Haram, Nigerians who were fervently
praying for the unity of the nation,
as well as families of our citizens
who were being mowed down daily
by Boko Haram.
The APC enjoined President
Jonathan to engage in some form of
introspection and realise that he
could only preside over a country
that remains whole, not one that
had been fractured or bombed out
of existence by terrorists.
Also speaking on the Presidential
directive, human rights lawyer, Mr.
Femi Falana (SAN), described the
use of the #BringBackJonathan2015
sign by President Jonathan’s second
term campaigners as a mockery of
national tragedy.

http://www.punchng.com/news/campaign-banners-removal-order-directive-belated-says-apc/