Yobe: Jonathan’s broadcast on centenary misplaced, says APC

    
The All Progressives Congress has faulted President Goodluck Jonathan for devoting his broadcast to the nation on Wednesday night to the centenary celebrations instead of the massacre of over 40 pupils of the Federal Government College in Yobe State, which the party described as a national tragedy.

In a statement on Thursday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the President’s action sent a wrong signal to the world about the value which the Nigerian government placed on the lives of the nation’s children.

It wondered what was so important about the centenary celebrations that it would be “elevated over and above what, in any nation, would be considered a monumental tragedy”, describing the President’s broadcast as insensitive, misplaced and an embarrassment to the nation.

APC said, “Even as the nation is still counting the death toll from Monday night’s senseless and gruesome murder of our children, and the ceaseless killings of innocent civilians before that, the President has already switched into a celebratory mood, dwelling on the money-wasting centenary-celebrations instead of leading a clearly distraught nation in mourning.

”Nothing better illustrates the fact that the President showed more concern about the centenary celebrations than the calamity

that befell the nation than the mention, in only about three paragraphs, of the tragedy in a speech that spanned over 40

paragraphs.

”This is very sad indeed, considering that President Jonathan is the head of a government that has failed woefully in ensuring the welfare and security of Nigerians, especially those of our children, which is the very reason for the existence of any government.”

The party said now that the President had “goofed again”, he should quickly make amends by visiting the scene of the tragedy to empathise with the families of the victims as well as the government and people of the state.