You are a Liar Jonathan Slates Azazi For “Anti PDP” Comments
April 29, 2012 in Nigerian Current Affairs
President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has issued a veiled threat to the National Security Adviser (NSA), General Andrew Owoye Azazi, for suggesting that the spate of terrorist acts in the North of Nigeria are traceable to the ruling party’s anti-democratic practices. The President said public officers should be careful in their utterances because words are “extremely elastic”
Speaking at an economic summit in Asaba earlier in the week, Azazi had suggested that the recurrence of terrorism acts, especially in the country’s Northern region, has its roots in the crave for power amongst the PDP’s ruling elite. Azazi suggested that in tampering with the power formula that brought in the current President, the ruling PDP may have unwittingly stoked the flames of violence and restiveness in a region where poverty percentages are on the higher side.
But addressing newsmen in Abuja in a sympathy visit to the now flattened offices of Thisday Newspapers–the latest target of the monstrous Islamic Militant group, Boko Haram– President Jonathan warned that his Security Adviser may have ventured off the mark. Said the President:
“Sometimes you have something in your mind that you want to communicate but the way you communicate it, different people will give different interpretation,” Jonathan said. “So until I read it. I don’t believe that the National Security Adviser means that the practice in PDP are anti democratic…I still see that the PDP is one of the most democratic parties. So I don’t believe that it is undemocratic practice in PDP that could give rise to Boko Haram or any other groups. Probably people need to ask NSA to maybe explain what he really mean.”
President Jonathan also maintained that his administration is unwavering in its drive to finally flush out terrorism in the polity and called on Nigerians to join in the efforts to stamp out terrorism;
“From the beginning of this terrorist attack, I have always maintained that terror attack in any part of the country is terror attack on all of us and indeed the whole world because terrorist method is to ensure they have maximum damage that the whole world will begin to look at their direction for relevance. You can see that this is a media house. It’s not a government establishment. Media has to inform all of us about what is happening. And of course the media is now also a victim. And that is why we all as Nigerians, no matter what we do, where we come from, we must join hands in fighting this terror. I can assure you that we will get over it. Other nations have passed through it….and they were able to conquer it. We are working very hard. The security services are working very hard. So we will conquer it.”
President Jonathan has often been on the receiving end of criticisms from younger Nigerians and civil society groups who feel his administration has not yet thought out a strategic approach to combating the dreaded Boko Haram multiple bombings and killings.
Culled from Ekekeee.com
