As the war of words intensifies between President Goodluck Jonathan and officials of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Jonathan today asked retired General Muhammadu Buhari not to blame him for the opposition party’s woes.
Mr. Jonathan’s position was contained in a statement titled “Don’t Blame Me For Your Party’s Self-Inflicted Woes” and signed by presidential spokesman Reuben Abati.
The presidential statement was a response to Mr. Buhari’s criticism of Mr. Jonathan’s failure to pull Nigeria back from the brink of disaster.
The president’s response scolded Mr. Buhari, a key figure in the opposition APC, for making “wild and totally unsustainable allegations” against the president.
The president accused the APC chieftain of avoiding the task of resolving his party’s schisms, adding that Mr. Jonathan was not behind the impeachment of Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State or the threats against other opposition governors. The presidential response asserted that Mr. Jonathan is not allowed by the constitution to intervene in impeachment procedures.
The text of the president’s statement is reproduced below:
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“Although he tries very hard to deny it in the statement titled ‘Pull Nigeria Back From the Brink’, there can be no doubt that General Buhari has sadly moved away from the patriotic and statesmanlike position he recently adopted on national security, which President Jonathan publicly commended, and has now reverted to unbridled political partisanship.
“There can be no other explanation or justification for the completely unwarranted and very uncharitable assault on the conduct and integrity of President Jonathan which the statement he issued today represents.
“General Buhari’s main grouse which clearly motivated his ill-considered statement appears to be what he called “the gale of impeachments or the utilization of desperate tactics to suffocate the opposition and turn Nigeria into a one-party state”. (SR)
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