Nigeria’s main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) party said President Goodluck Jonathan lacks the moral right to seek a second full year term in office following what the group says has been the deteriorating security situation in the country.
Alhaji Lai Mohammed spokesman for the APC said Jonathan so far has been unable to carry out his fundamental constitutional mandate to protect life and property since the country’s faces increasing violence often carried out by Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram.
“A man who has failed to discharge the core responsibility of a president, which is the protection of life and property, has no moral right to seek for re-election,” said Mohammed.
“In the last five years this government has spent over $ 32 billion on security and what do we have for it? We have lost thousands of lives to Boko Haram insurgency … yet the president insists he must run for a second term,” he said.
Mohammed said the administration in Abuja has yet to implement comprehensive security policies to combat and defeat Boko Haram.
His comments came Friday after Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo officially presented Jonathan’s presidential election nomination form to the chairman of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the capital, Abuja. Jonathan has declared he will seek re-election in next year’s presidential vote.
Supporters of the president say the opposition party’s accusations are fraught with inaccuracies and political calculations aimed at making Jonathan unpopular in the run-up to next year’s vote.
They contend that terrorism is a global phenomenon requiring international cooperation to defeat.
Mohammed denied the APC has politicized the current security challenges.
“If only the president had addressed the Boko Haram insurgency with assiduity, probably we would not have the kind of mess we have on our hands today. On the contrary, the response of the president to the Boko Haram insurgency has been characterized by denial and incompetence,” said Mohammed.
Some PDP supporters say senior members of the opposition party are either financiers or sympathizers of the terrorist group. They argue that the APC was against efforts by the government to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist organization and to seek international help.
Mohammed disagreed, saying the accusations are without merit.
“It is illogical to think that way,” said Mohammed. “These people who have been talking about the APC being behind Boko Haram fail to accept the fact that Boko Haram is 10 years old, the APC is less than two years old. So how do you link APC with Boko Haram? When the government is incompetent, what it does is to shift blame,” said Mohammed.
