Leading opposition party, Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has lambasted President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan for embarking on a trip to Brazil for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development while the nation is on fire.
ACN in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, described Jonathan’s decision to travel two days after dozens of innocent Nigerians, including women and children lost their dear live by suicide bombers in Kaduna State, is a sign of insensitive and confused leadership. The party opined that the President should have cancelled the trip as a symbolic act of a caring leadership and out of respect for the souls that were lost and are still being lost across the country.
“Again, we are constrained to ask whether this President is getting quality advice from the myriad of aides surrounding him, or whether, like his benefactor, Olusegun Obasanjo, he has decided he may not even take any advice from his advisers. In other climes, the usual thing is for leaders to cancel foreign trips or rush home from such trips when their countries suffer tragedies.
”In April 2010, Chinese President, Hu Jintao cut short his Latin American tour and returned home after a strong earthquake hit the west of China; This year, South Sudanese President Salva Kiir returned home early from his visit to China, due to the rising tension along the border of his country with Sudan, and even a phone-hacking scandal was enough for British Prime Minister David Cameron to cut short an African trade tour and return home in 2011.
”Since our own President has not even left Nigeria when these latest tragedies broke, it is inexplicable that he will still hop into a plane with a huge entourage and fly out. He should realise that he is attending the conference because he is the President of Nigeria, not because he is Dr. Jonathan.
Therefore, Nigeria’s paramount interest dictates that he stays at home and oversees efforts to prevent the precarious situation in Kaduna from degenerating into an all-out religious war,” the party said.
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