20th April, 2015
PRESS RELEASE:
MURIC DISAGREES WITH
DOYIN OKUPE ON CAUSE OF JONATHAN’S DEFEAT
Mr. Doyin Okupe yesterday attributed the defeat of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to his failure to rescue the Chibok girls.
The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) frowns at this hero-worshipping attempt to extenuate the various excesses of President Jonathan. While we appreciate President Jonathan’s timely act of conceding defeat in the presidential election, we hasten to assert that this single act alone is not enough to obliterate his litany of abnormalities in governance.
Doyin Okupe’s attempt at praise-singing his employer has only succeeded in jogging our memory. Nigerians cannot forget so quickly. Still fresh in our memory are President Jonathan’s politics of exclusion; his many failed promises; how he soaked the hands of the military in the murky waters of dirty politics; how he punished the entire North but pretended to be its best friend; the way he tore the entire country into two religious camps, his deliberate impoverisation of Nigerian Muslims, his favouritism in the area of job recruitment and his nepotism.
Doyin Okupe is deliberately playing on the collective intelligence of Nigerians. To tell us that the kidnap was staged in order to make Jonathan look incompetent is sheer infantile thinking.
Who
really is to blame if the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces refused to
believe that the kidnap of the Chibok girls was real. Who is to blame if the
C-in-C failed to act for good eighteen days after the unfortunate incident?
Has
Doyin Okupe forgotten the cries of Nigerian Muslims over their marginalization
in the 2014 National Conference? Has he forgotten the gross imbalance in the number of Christians and
Muslim delegates?
Didn’t
the C-in-C promise to make amendments when the Sultan of Sokoto led a Muslim
delegation to him to plead for parity and equal treatment? Did the C-in-C
fulfill this promise? Did he do anything?
What of the removal of
Arabic Ajami from the newly printed N100 note? Has Okupe forgotten the hopus
copus which followed this anti-North cum anti-Muslim act? Can he recall what MURIC said at the time? If Doyin Okupe would
check his records he would find that MURIC made a statement at the time that tyrants are
taught the lessons of their lives during elections. So is it still the Chibok
girls’ factor alone?
Recall
the Oritsejafor angle and the provocative statements which President Jonathan
failed to check. The aircraft of the same Oritsejafor was involved in the
scandalous and illegal arms deal and money laundering in South Africa.
Add or remove Patience
Jonathan’s open contempt for Northerners as contained in a statement allegedly
made by her in which she derided Northerners as people who produce children
only to throw them on the streets!
The First Lady’s impertinence is also partly responsible for her husband’s loss. Who snatched the microphone from the hands of a state governor at a public function? Who summoned the Borno State commissioner of police? Doyin Okupe should answer those questions.
The First Lady’s impertinence is also partly responsible for her husband’s loss. Who snatched the microphone from the hands of a state governor at a public function? Who summoned the Borno State commissioner of police? Doyin Okupe should answer those questions.
President Jonathan paid
the price for allowing his wife to usurp his executive powers. Nigerians may have
said nothing at the time but they are not fools. What of the threats constantly
issued by Jonathan’s kinsmen? Couldn’t Jonathan see that they were holding the
rest of Nigerians to ransom? Did he think Nigerians are cowards? Jonathan’s
conspiratorial silence in the face of the belligerence of his kinsmen has only
one meaning.
How
does Doyin Okupe explain Jonathan’s trivialization of corruption and his
unGodly romance with corruption kingpins? Why must Jonathan give national
awards to internationally acknowledged thieves and protect drug barons?
Jonathan’s
dictatorial proclivity was demonstrated in the sealing of opposition
secretariat, misuse of security and other federal agencies to witch-hunt the
opposition. In the height of despotism, aircrafts carrying members of the
opposition were denied landing right. This was an inhuman act as it could have
resulted in the death of those helpless passengers on board particularly if the
aircrafts did not have enough fuel.
A state governor was
forced to drive himself from Kano to the South because his aircraft was not
allowed to take off. Security
agencies were used to subvert legitimate exercises embarked upon by the
opposition while they openly supported illegal acts of members of the ruling
party. Buhari’s certificategate discredited the army, an otherwise noble
profession. It painted President Jonathan as mean and desperate to hold on to
power. But the effect on the electorate was negative for him as emotions flowed
in the direction of the victim.
These
are the issues. It was not just the Chibok girls alone. Jonathan’s cup of
excesses was filled beyond the brim and it was already spilling. Regardless of
religion or ethnicity, we believe that any credible Nigerian endowed with
vision and the credentials for good governance can lead this country.
The president’s religion
does not matter. Any good Christian or good Muslim can successfully lead us and
take us out of the woods. Whoever will treat Christians and Muslims as well as
all ethnicities equally will make a good leader here. The president’s kinsmen
must not treat the rest of Nigerians like slaves in their own land.
In
conclusion, MURIC implores the incoming administration to learn from the
mistakes of the Jonathan administration. Buhari as a Muslim president-elect
must rise above religious persecution and clannishness.
The
Christians of Nigeria must enjoy all fundamental human rights as well as the
dividends of democracy. Neither should the South-South be neglected. Buhari’s
administration must work towards improving the welfare of the people of the
Niger Delta as a matter of priority.
Professor Ishaq Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)
