The Presidency yesterday berated former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar over his remarks on the security situation in the country, saying that some past utterances of Atiku contributed to the escalation of insurgency in the North.
Okupe stated this while speaking on the last day of Public Affairs Forum, a programme organised by his office to enable ministers give an account of stewardship to members of civil society organisations, professional groups and artisans in Abuja.
While making reference to a statement that ‘those who make peaceful change impossible will make violent change inevitable,’ made by Atiku at the northern stakeholders’ forum in 2010, Okupe said it was unfortunate that those who desperately stoked the fire of insurgency are now laying the blame on the shoulders of a government that is working hard to put out the fire.
According to the president’s aide, it is a mark of unpatriotism for Atiku to talk down on the military which he hopes to lead if elected President of the Federal Republic.
Okupe said the former vice-president was not known to have taken any hard position on terrorists and terrorism in the past and shouldn’t expect to gain any political mileage from the unfortunate killings and kidnappings in some parts of the North by presenting himself as being on the side of the victims of insurgency.
He advised the APC presidential aspirant to learn from political leaders in other climes who drop the toga of partisanship in moments of mational crisis by supporting their government to raise the hope of citizens and defeat enemies of civilisation.
Okupe said President Goodluck Jonathan would not be distracted by negative comments from Atiku and a few others whose only concern is politics rather than nation building but he (Jonathan) would continue to work assiduously with security chiefs and community stakeholders to restore peace to Northern Nigeria in the shortest possible time.
Meanwhile, a political support group working for Atiku, the Turaki Vanguard, has asked President Jonathan to stop abusing the rights of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.
The group said the call became necessary because it believes the country is governed by civil law and that no individual or political party must revert our norms and behaviours to gangster rules.
A statement issued Monday by the National President of the Turaki Vanguard, Oladimeji Fabiyi, also urged the presidency to stop trading words with people but rather to deploy efforts on how to recover our lost territories from the insurgents.
On the controversy generated by the withdrawal of the security details of Tambuwal, the group said there was no doubt that our democracy had grown past the age of arbitrary politics when a sitting president sees the whole country as his chiefdom.
According to the group, in line with the laws of the land, the Speaker has committed no infraction for which he should be denied security protection as the number four citizen of the country.
“We also believe that the action of the presidency in instigating the withdrawal of the security attached to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, is a manifestation of gangster politics. Such action from the PDP-led federal government at this point of national emergency amounts to a set-back to the country’s democratization process.
“There is subsisting judicial pronouncement on the matter of defection, but if the Presidency and the security agencies, were in doubt, should have sought judicial interpretation from the court,” the group said. (AIT)
