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Considering the inability of the present government to arrest threatening national challenges, South-South Emerging Leaders’ Forum (SELF) has described as unfortunate the booting of former President Goodluck Jonathan out of Aso Villa in 2015.
Chairman of the forum, Dr. Preye Ebi, who spoke to reporters in Abuja yesterday, threw his weight behind the former deputy national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timi Frank, over his call on those who sabotaged the Jonathan administration to apologise.
The group of young professionals chided the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) for “mischievously allowing itself to be used against the former president”, wondering why “the union has become docile against the APC government that has brought more hardship on its members.”
It described the call by Frank as patriotic, adding that the likes of former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor and now Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi; pastor of Latter rain Assembly (LRA), Tunde Bakare; and so many others who participated in the Save Nigeria Group, should openly toe the path of honour and speak out against bad governance.
Frank had called on Nigerians, especially those who worked with him against the re-election of Jonathan, to apologise to the Otuoke-born don and environmentalist.
SELF wondered how all the strong voices that rose against Jonathan’s administration suddenly lost their voices, even in the face of “more hardship, killings, insecurity, poverty, unemployment, lack of rule of law and all kinds of backwardness in the country.”
It called on Bakare, “who turned his church auditorium to political gathering to criticise Jonathan’s administration to compare and contrast whether Nigeria is now better under his friend (Buhari) or publicly tender apology to redeem his image.”
Challenging Sanusi over what it described as unsubstantiated allegation that a certain amount of money got missing under Jonathan, the group said “the effort was to sabotage Jonathan’s administration.”
On insecurity, SELF recalled how Lai Mohammed and other opposition leaders of Jonathan’s administration rose against the proscription of Boko Haram as a terrorist group.
“Till today, the government they mischievously brought to power could not find solution, but ignorantly empowering more groups to carry arms against innocent Nigerians.
“As it is today, Nigerian roads are not safe, as kidnapping has become the order of the day. Governments now have to negotiate with bandits to have peace,” Ebi added.
