The presidency yesterday came down hard on the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu over his call for the resignation of President Goodluck Jonathan for the “shoddy handling of the insurgency” in the country’s Northeast.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, in a statement yesterday, insisted Jonathan would not resign.
Tinubu had at a rally in Ilorin last Wednesday, called on Jonathan to resign, saying that in a civilized country, a leader would have resigned under the circumstance.
But Okupe said the “assertion by Senator Tinubu at a political rally in Ilorin, Kwara State on Wednesday that in civilised societies, the President should have resigned is unfounded and lacking in historical precedence.
“We challenge him to tell Nigerians, which part of his civilised world has there been a call on a President to resign during an on-going war.
“When terrorists attacked the United States of America in September, 2001, leaders of the Democratic Party did not demand a resignation of President George Bush.
“But rather, they rose in defence of the American nation to support the various measures taken by the president to defeat the Al-Qaeda terrorists.
“It is perhaps necessary to remind the APC leader that it was leading members of his party, who vehemently opposed and openly criticised the proscription of the Boko Haram sect by the Federal Government in 2013, with some of them even going as far as describing it as a move against the North while others tried to incite the civil society to condemn this anti-terrorists act.
“It is therefore unfortunate that the APC, in its desperation for power and eagerness to make selfish political gains from insecurity, has shown a total lack of the spirit of nationalism and statesmanship in its public comments on the challenges of insurgency in the Northeast.”
Comments