the exchange of words felt like what one would have expected in a beer
parlour–APC
There is nothing like desecration of the Presidency in this matter. It
is the APC and its cohorts… that are desecrating the Presidency–Gulak
The All Progressives Congress and the Presidency returned to a
familiar turf on Thursday as they engaged each other in a war of
words over the exchange of letters between President Goodluck Jonathan
and former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
While the APC accused Jonathan of desecrating his Presidency by
responding in an indecent manner to Obasanjo's letter, the Presidency
said it was the opposition party that was doing a damage to the
Presidency.
The APC , in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji
Lai Mohammed, said the President crossed the threshold of
decency and brought the Presidency – and indeed the country -into
disrepute by not exercising caution in its response to the letter
written to Jonathan by Obasanjo.
It added that Jonathan had further diminished the Presidency with
the way he replied Obasanjo's letter.
It argued that in other climes, the President would have simply
issued a terse response to such a letter denying the allegations that
border on national security, if any; as well as saying the former
President's observations had been noted.
According to the APC , Jonathan should have said the government
would study the issues raised by Obasanjo and then engage him in
private.
A part of the statement reads, ''Instead, the President's response
read like the stuff of gossip magazines, and the exchange of words
felt like what one would have expected in a beer parlour.
"At the end of the day, the Presidency allowed Obasanjo to take the
higher moral ground by simply insisting on the allegations he made in
his letter and saying he would not respond to the Presidency's reply."
The APC said the President, who accused Obasanjo of doing him a
great injustice, had equally done a great injustice to the
Presidency, which it described as an institution in which he
(Jonathan) is only a tenant.
It added that in the end, "President of Africa's most populous
nation, the leader of the foremost black nation on earth and the
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria simply desecrated his own Presidency and allowed those who can
only be likened to gravy train passengers, rascals and knaves to seize
the initiative from him."
The APC said this was what would happen when a President was
surrounded by those it described as self-serving, bootlicking and
dishonest people, at the expense of seasoned technocrats and veteran
policymakers.
The party said the President was not unaware of this because he
struggled in his letter to maintain some minimum level of decorum, and
then quickly lost control and engaged in a bare-knuckle fight.
The opposition party said the President himself knew that he ought
not to have engaged in such exchange when he wrote early on in his
letter: 'It is with the greatest possible reluctance that I now write
this reply. I am most uneasy about embarking on this unprecedented and
unconventional form of open communication between me and a former
leader of our country because I know that there are more acceptable
and dignified means of doing so.'
However, the APC said the President quickly jettisoned such
reluctance and, in an "unfortunate debasement of the tone and quality
of statecraft, went full blast, calling the former President a liar, a
conflict instigator and an unreliable ally, among other inferred
derogatory labels that may have now shut the window of reconciliation
between him and his political godfather, in addition to portraying
Nigerian leaders as delinquents."
It added, ''To worsen matters, President Jonathan could not restrain
himself from using even the revered and ecclesial platform provided by
his appearance at a Church service on Christmas Day to further lambast
his critics and spew out hot words."
This method, according to the APC, is not what is expected of a
President, a leader and anyone who wants to be a nation builder.
But the Presidency did not take the APC statement lightly as it
said it was the opposition party and its cohorts that were
desecrating the Presidency.
It said Jonathan did no wrong by responding to the letter by Obasanjo.
The Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Mr. Ahmed
Gulak, said because the former President raised germane issues in his
18-page letter, Nigerians were waiting for the President to respond.
He said a letter that emanated from Obasanjo could not be described
as an ordinary one because he had written to ex-Presidents in the
past.
He said, "A letter from Obasanjo is not an ordinary letter and the
former President is not an ordinary person. You know he has been
writing former Presidents before .
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