Divisive utterances: Lead by example, APC urges Jonathan

The All Progres­sives Congress (APC) has urged President Good­luck Jonathan to show leadership by example instead of engaging in mere rhetorics, saying talk becomes cheap the moment words lose their meaning.

President Jonathan, speak­ing at a special Christmas service at St. Matthew’s An­glican Church in Maitama, Abuja, has described some of the proactive utterances by politicians in their desper­ate quest for power as em­barrassing, urging them to avoid sowing the seed of dis­cord and hatred ahead of the 2015 general elections.
A statement issued in La­gos on Friday by APC Na­tional Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said President Jonathan’s exhor­tations would have carried weight if he had acted in such a way that his compa­triots would not doubt his sincerity.
He wondered how the President could admonish others to avoid sowing the seeds of discord and hatred through their utterances when that is exactly the stock in trade of his political associates, supporters and spokespersons.
‘’Everything that the President’s political associ­ates, supporters and spokes­persons have done has been geared toward creating divi­sion among Nigerians and sowing the seeds of discord and hatred, and the President is not on record as having ever called them to order.
‘’Recently, Chief Edwin Clark, a die-hard supporter of the President, said glibly that if the opposition has its way it can poison or kill President Jonathan just to take power. No statement could be more absurd and volatile, yet the President never called him to order.
‘’Another dyed-in-the-wool supporter of the President, Mujaheed Asari Dokubo, said on national television that there will be blood on the streets if Presi­dent Jonathan is not re-elect­ed in 2015. He also said ‘we will not take any prisoner of war. It will be total battle’, but the President never ut­tered a word in his rebuke.
‘’Since President Jona­than’s main opponent in the 2015 elections, Gen.Mu­hammadu Buhari, emerged, his party members and spokesmen have been fall­ing over themselves to pour invectives on him and his party, the APC. The National Secretary of the President’s party, Wale Oladipo, called the former head of state a ‘semi-literate jackboot’, Doyin Okupe lambasted Gen. Buhari for not stealing money during his many pub­lic appointments while PDP spokesman Olisa Metuh is­sued his most jejune state­ment to date just to pillory the APC and its leaders.