Nigerians have reacted with outrage over President Goodluck
Jonathan’s visit to Kano to welcome former governor of the state,
Ibrahim Shekarau, to the Peoples Democratic Party, a day after a car
bomb killed dozens of Nigeria and injured several others in a suburb of
Abuja.
The government said 75 people died while 124 others were injured
although body count by witnesses and a PREMIUM TIMES reporter suggest
over 200 Nigerians were killed.
Insensitive, irresponsible, terrible, and wicked are some of the
words that have been used to describe the president’s political visit to
Kano.
“Let’s face it, is it even proper, as a father, for the president to
be dancing at a rally and clinking glasses at a chief’s party just the
day after?” said Betty Abah, journalist and activist. “What really would
happen if he sends representatives while he pretends he’s meeting
security chiefs? Even if he doesn’t care, is this even good for his
image? What message is he sending out? He did same during the Centenary
celebrations. How do you explain this crass insensitivity?”
“It is plain insensitive, really. It an evident that the leadership of
this country does not take our lives seriously at all,” said activist
lawyer, Bamidele Aturu.
“Over 200 people were killed by Boko Haram insurgents. Less than 24
hours later, the president was in Kano on political mission. That tells
you they don’t take us seriously and our lives don’t count for much.
That is the height of insensitivity I have seen in recent times,” he
continued.
“He wouldn’t have lost anything if he had postponed the campaign for
another one or two months and let the people who are bereaved come to
terms with the gruesome reality,” he added.
Mr. Aturu said the President’s action showed the huge disconnect between Nigerians and their political leaders.
“Our people need to understand that there is a big disconnect between
them and the people that leads them who only require them to vote to be
in power.”
He said the president’s action, if done in other countries, could have cost him his job.
“This kind of things would not happen elsewhere. In other countries
the president can even be impeached for what he has done. It is
terrible. For him to embark on that trip show clearly that for him
politics is more important than the lives of Nigerians.”
“It is very insensitive and irresponsible,” said another lawyer, Festus Keyamo.
“That is a sign that the government does not value the lives of
Nigerians. As a matter of fact it is confirmation that the present
system actually enjoys the pogrom that is going on in that part of the
country. It is very condemnable that the president could not even
declare a day of national mourning after we have lost about 200 lives,”
said Chairman of CACOL, Debo Adeniran.
“The president is not thoughtful; the president seems to be sadistic,
enjoying the show of bloodletting. Our president doesn’t care. You know
he said the other time that he doesn’t give a damn. He doesn’t give a
damn whatever Nigerians say, he doesn’t give a damn about our feelings
of agony, he doesn’t give a damn about those who are suffering the pains
and pangs of the carnage going on in some parts of the country.”
The Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso, also chided the president for being insensitive to the lives lost in he blast.
“At a time when several innocent lives have been lost, when many of
the victims are in hospital seeking blood donations to survive, the
president is gallivanting around the country in the name of PDP unity
rally”, he said during the matriculation ceremony of the Northwest
University.
PREMIUM TIMES columnist, Pius Adesanmi, was sarcastic in his condemnation of the president’s political rally in Kano.
Writing on his Facebook timeline, Mr Adesanmi, who is a professor of English at Carleton University in Canada, said:
“People can tell lies sha. They are saying that a day after
terrorists struck his country’s capital in an attack that killed and
maimed hundreds of his employers and on the same day that Boko Haram
kidnapped two hundred school girls, all daughters of his employers,
President Goodluck Jonathan was on the campaign trail in Kano.
“The people telling these horrendous lies against my President might
as well go ahead and say that Dr Jonathan’s pals, Martin Luther King Jr
and Nelson Mandela, would do likewise in similar circumstances, bringing
out the fatted calf to make campaign merry just after losing hundreds
of Americans or South Africans. Even my eyes, watching TV, are part of
this conspiracy of lies against the President. Twitter is in on the
conspiracy too, telling lies that Reuben Abati has twitted triumphant
pictures of the President’s triumphal entry to Kano,” he wrote.
“I am sure that what Mr. President did today was embark on a sweeping
working visit to military and other security formations all over the
North to boost morale, listen to the needs and challenges of our men and
women in uniform, and use the carnage in Abuja to sensitize them to the
fierce urgency of the task at hand.
“I am sure that my President continued the task of mending the
traumatized psyche of his people today. I am sure that my President and
his handlers cannot be dumb enough to miss the symbolic significance of
the nation seeing images of him hands-on on the security front – and
definitely not on the political front of self perpetuation in office – a
day after Abuja. So, my eyes, TV stations, Twitter, and all other
conspirators, stop telling lies against my President. If you saw anybody
campaigning in Kano today, wasn’t him. It was Shaggy!”
Crocodile tears
Mr Adeniran said the president was merely shedding “crocodile tears” at the scene of the carnage on Monday.
“It was crocodile tears he shed. He visited just because it happened
in Abuja close to Asokoro. He wouldn’t have visited; he didn’t visit
Maiduguri, he didn’t visit several other sites of pogrom. He only
managed to make out time for that because he was in Abuja when that
happened. It wasn’t that he was concerned about the lives and properties
damaged.”
Similarly, Mr. Keyamo said the president was only pretending with the
emotions he displayed after he visited the scene of the blast hours
later.
“It is just pretence, nothing but pretence. We ought to declare clear
seven days of mourning for those victims. No political activities
should take place with those seven days,” He said.
On his part, Mr Aturu said the president was only playacting like a professional mourner would do.
“Politicians can playact. You know in Nigeria there are people that
are paid to weep at funerals ceremonies. What he has done clearly shows
that he didn’t believe what he was doing.
“If he was weeping just yesterday and now he’s in Kano doing politics
when people are yet to come to terms with what happened. All they want
is power that’s the impression they are giving unfortunately.”
