Hold Jonathan Responsible For Crisis in Rivers State Say ACN, Northern Elders, ACF

Prof. Ango Abdullahi

Two powerful political groups in the North, the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) and Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) yesterday in Kaduna held President Goodluck Jonathan and his spouse responsible for the crises rocking Rivers State.

Their views tally with those of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) which this afternoon in Oro, Kwara State, also asked Nigerians to hold President Jonathan responsible if the country slides into anarchy as a result of the worsening crisis in Rivers.
Reacting to yesterday’s reported attack on four Governors who visited Gov. Chibuike Amaechi in Port Harcourt, ACN warned that the attack that took place under President Jonathan's watch is unprecedented in the country's history.

''We will not accept the usual sophistry that President Jonathan is not in any way involved in the Rivers crisis,” the party said in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.  “It is also not an excuse to argue that the President did not know that the visiting Governors will be attacked, because as the country's Chief Security Officer, he has his ears and eyes all over the country in the persons of security agents. Therefore, if the argument is that he did not know of the attack, then he is not on top of his game.”

The Northern groups expressed their views at a press conference following a series of meetings with four other groups in Abuja: the Code Group, the Arewa Reawakening Forum, the Northern Union, and the Arewa Research And Development Project, calling for a revaluation of the state of emergency in order to end it as soon as possible.

Speaking on their behalf, Prof. Ango Abdullahi criticized President Jonathan for deliberately heating up the polity for his 2015 re-election bid, accusing him of being hell-bent on creating violence in the country.

“The alarming desperation of politicians to manoeuvre themselves in vantage positions for the electoral contests of 2015 is a major threat to the elections themselves, and, ultimately, the democratic process,” he noted.  “The clumsy and embarrassing conduct and fallout of the election in the Governors’ Forum, the engineered crisis in the ruling party, the role of the spouse of the President in affairs of s1iie and the shameful and disturbing abuse of power and rule of law in Rivers Sate, are signs that Nigeria is descending into anarchy and lawlessness rarely seen in our history.”

He asserted that the hands of the Presidency are clearly visible in these entire events that appear to draw inspiration from the ambition of President Goodluck Jonathan to stay in power in 2015, adding that recent developments in Rivers State represent a new low in the shameful conduct of political office holders at the highest levels and should be condemned by all Nigerians.

He regretted that those who swore to defend our Constitution and to uphold the rule of law are the same people who use violence as a political tool and serially abuse the power entrusted to them.  

In his words, “They have abandoned the responsibilities entrusted to them in pursuit of more power and the unending persecution of imaginary enemies. They endanger our democracy and national security. They must be called to question and asked to stop now.”

He drew a parallel between the situation in Rivers State and the Western Nigeria crisis of 1963, saying it is symptomatic of the politics of intolerance which has remained the hallmark of Nigeria’s political experience since 1999.

“From Governor Dariye of Plateau State, Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; Chief Audu Ogbe, Chief Vincent Ogbulafor, Dr. Ekwesilieze Nwodo, and most recently Chief Timpreye Sylva, all perceived enemies at one time or the other since 1999 had been subjected to venomous, vengeful and unforgiving treatment all in the name of politics and struggle for power,” Professor Abdullahi said.

The groups called on President Jonathan to order an immediate cessation of hostilities in Rivers State and to stop using the Nigeria police to settle his political disputes, warning that the Nigeria Police is NOT a political party and certainly not an arm of the People’s Democratic Party.

The groups condemned in the strongest terms the targeting of school children in Yobe State, saying they welcomed the marked decline in widespread hostilities between Boko Haram and the security agencies as a result of the state of emergency in the North East, and called on the President and the Government of Yobe State to unravel the culprits.

They also called on the President and the National Assembly to assess the impact of the emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States on the civilian population and take measures that will reduce the suffering of the people and the decline in economic activities of communities and the region at large.

In its statement, ACN wondered when it became a sin for any Nigerian, including elected officials, to visit any part of the country as the Governors did, saying there can be no justification other than organized political rascality for a group of paid hoodlums to invade a secure environment like the airport and pelt the convoy bearing the Governors with all sorts of objects.

''Would the police have allowed tramps to attack the Governors if they were visiting the President?” the statement asked.  “Would the police in Rivers have allowed vagrants to act freely if those visiting Port Harcourt had come in solidarity with the five renegade members of the State House of Assembly?  The unprofessional behaviour of the police in Rivers is the reason that Nigerians have accused the state police command of bias and called for the re-deployment of its 'political' Commissioner, Mbu Joseph Mbu.

ACN repeated its earlier warning against any contrived crisis in any part of the country as a way of pushing the country into a perpetual state of chaos, thus ensuring there will be no elections in 2015.

It said: ''The politics of 2015 cannot be removed from what is happening in Rivers.  We have had cause to warn Nigerians to be vigilant against those who will foment trouble where there is none, just to put in abeyance the 2015 elections, especially where the emerging signals point to the fact that they will be rejected by voters. Those who are afraid of free and fair elections in 2015 will do anything to prevent one. Therefore, we are repeating our call on all Nigerians to be vigilant, because eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”