The opposition All Progressives Congress, AOC on Sunday said by failing to visit Chibok, Borno State, where over 200 schoolgirls were abducted by Boko Haram since April 14, President Goodluck Jonathan had betrayed Nigerians who voted him into office.
The party said the cancellation of the allegedly planned presidential visit to Chibok was indicative of the Jonathan administration’s policy flip-flop in the fight against Boko Haram.
In a statement in Lagos, APC Interim National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, said the Jonathan administration had bungled the fight against the sect and exhibited cluelessness in handling the abduction of the schoolgirls.
”With his utterances and actions or inaction, President Jonathan has deepened the pains of the parents and guardians of the girls, and indeed that of the whole nation, when he should have been the consoler-in-chief at such a difficult time for a nation he leads.
”A President and Commander-in-Chief, who is afraid to visit any part of his country, has betrayed the very people who voted him into office. In the case of Chibok, he has shown that the residents of the town should not expect to be seen as compatriots by their own President; hence they are on their own.”
APC accused Jonathan’s administration of lying to Nigerians by saying the President never planned to visit Chibok, even when it was widely reported that the President’s advance team had landed in Borno State.
The party described the President’s explanation that he did not go to Chibok because the girls were not being held there as pedestrian.
“This statement shows that President Jonathan does not understand the demands of his office, and that in good/bad times, he is to be seen and heard as the lead celebrant/lead consoler for his compatriots. His statement is the most pedestrian justification of a presidential faux pas ever.
”As usual, a trip -belated as it were- that could have gone a long way in redeeming the battered global image of the Jonathan administration in the handling of the abduction issue, has turned out to be another albatross for the President.
“Again, a President who is demonstrably averse to success has snatched defeat just when he was on the cusp of victory.”
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