ABUJA — Barely 72 hours after former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju
Bola Tinubu, chastised President Goodluck Jonathan administration’s poor
leadership, the Presidency, yesterday, fired back at him, describing
his economic blueprint for Nigeria’s growth as obsolete and incapable of
salvaging any economy.
Besides, the Presidency accused Tinubu of always playing to the
gallery for cheap political gains without adding value to the people in
anyway.
The ACN leader had on Monday addressed the House of Commons in
London, during which he highlighted major political and economic
challenges facing the country; in a lecture he called “Leadership,
National Development and the People”.
Apart from describing Jonathan’s administration as lacking the needed
capacity to move the nation forward, the APC chieftain also accused the
government of taking Nigeria backwards.
Tinubu and democracy
The Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs to President Jonathan,
Dr. Doyin Okupe, in his reaction, yesterday, described Tinubu as an
autocratic leader, lacking in democratic credentials to talk about
leadership and good governance.
Okupe noted with dismay the claim by the former governor that the
Jonathan administration was drawing the country backwards, boasting that
the current leadership had done more than any other in Nigeria’s near
53 years of nationhood.
The SSA also described Tinubu’s economic blueprint, “Third Path” as
moribund and incapable of taking any country forward and accused him of
trying to delve into an area he has little or no knowledge about.
Okupe dismissed as verbose and lacking in statistical support,
Tinubu’s recommendation that no large nation has ever attained growth
without government running deficit budget to build required
infrastructure.
The Presidential aide noted: “It is clear from Tinubu’s paper that
the ACN chieftain and his party lack a fundamental understanding of both
democratic norms and sound economic judgment.
“Tinubu’s Third Path blueprint for economic transformation is nothing
but a hollow ideological concept. As the ACN national leader has
failed to realize, the world has moved away from ideologies in favour of
pragmatic and result-oriented policies, which impact meaningfully on
the lives of the people.
“Nations like Russia and China, which spearheaded Communism, one of
the great ideological movements of the 20th century, have since embraced
market reforms, and states in the western hemisphere have also dumped
pure capitalism for more people-oriented policies with less dogmas and
economic clichés.
“We are sorry to say that the so-called “Third Path” is a clueless
path to socio-economic abyss as it remains essentially a theoretical
proposition with no evidence of success either in history or
contemporary climes,” Okupe said.
Tinubu not a patriot — Okupe
The presidential aide also condemned the ACN chieftain for trying to
portray himself as a patriot, noting that his actions and utterances
were skewed and not in sync with actions of patriots around the world.
“This is why we regrettably disagree with Senator Tinubu’s labelling
of himself as a patriot. As everyone well knows, patriots are concerned
with the image, the well-being and survival of their countries and will
do everything in their power to protect same even if they have political
differences with their home governments. They do not condone terrorism
neither do they travel around the world denigrating their country,” he
added.
He pointed out that the former governor had no justification to
criticise the rising wave of insecurity in parts of the North, having
opposed the recent declaration of state of emergency by the Presidency
to checkmate terrorism in the region.
Okupe said the country would have been consumed by terrorism if
Nigerians were to follow the advice of the ACN leader and his CPC
counterpart, who all asked the National Assembly to reject the
imposition of a state of emergency in Adamawa, Yobe and Borno states.
Asking Nigerians to ignore the former governor’s undemocratic antics,
Okupe stated that Jonathan had done his best to provide the nation with
the needed people-oriented leadership based on the rule of law.
He said: “As any keen and discerning observer of Nigeria’s democracy
will attest, Senator Tinubu and his ACN are completely lacking in
democratic temper. The ACN as a party is not only undemocratic but
blatantly autocratic and makes no pretences about it.
“We recall that only recently, its National Chairman, Chief Bisi
Akande, haughtily asserted that whosoever is not pleased with the
national leadership of the party’s way of running the ACN and picking
its candidates was free to leave the party.
“It is clear that ACN leadership’s understanding of democracy is
tainted and skewed by his undemocratic mindset, which has seen him exert
authoritarian control over the party. With such disposition, it is easy
to understand his warped and defective reading of the democratic
situation in Nigeria.
“To assert as he did in that paper that Nigeria under the leadership
of President Goodluck Jonathan is a dysfunctional democracy is not only
the height of ignorance but equally of unbridled mischief. “Unlike the ACN chieftain would have us believe, Nigerian democracy
does not stand in any dark and uncertain corridor neither is it
authoritarian. Rather, it looms large in the minds of Nigerians for its
respect for fundamental human rights and the rule of law.
“For followers, local and international of Nigeria’s democratic
journey since 1999, there is unanimity of opinion that no administration
has equalled the Jonathan administration in the observance of and
respect for the hallowed principles of maintenance of rule of law, free
press, sanctity of the electoral process, separation of powers and
respect for public opinion. President Goodluck Jonathan’s opening up of
the democratic space through institutional reforms clearly marks him out
as a committed democrat.”
“It is trite to observe that President Jonathan is perhaps the most
unjustifiably maligned leader in the history of Nigeria with critics
using their overriding influence on Print and Electronic Media freely
and in many cases unfairly to take pot-shots at him.
“It is common knowledge that no administration has been abused, lied
against and harangued like the present administration under Jonathan.
Yet, there have not been any reprisals or harassment from government
agencies. Instead, the administration has encouraged free speech and
open government. It is on record that despite the avalanche of
criticisms and attacks in the media, journalists and their organizations
have not been hounded or closed down as we witnessed in recent past.
The Presidency, which advised Tinubu to adopt a higher standard of
integrity as a former governor and political leader, dismissed his
London speech said to have been delivered to the House of Commons as an
event put together by a private concern owned by a Nigerian who only
rented a room within the premises of the British parliament.
“Good leadership must be distant and distinct from lies and
deliberate falsehood intended to fool the public. For Leadership,
integrity counts!” he warned.
Source: Vanguard
