President GEJ should visit Yobe rather than going around- APC

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has again
called on President Goodluck Jonathan to take
time off his premature electioneering campaign
to visit Yobe State to commiserate with the
bereaved families of the innocent schoolchildren who were brutally murdered by terrorists last
month. In a statement issued in Lagos on Monday by its
Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, the party said it is totally inconceivable
that about two weeks after the heart-wrenching
killings of more than 29 schoolchildren, the
President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has not deemed it fit to visit the state. It said far from being a mere formality, such a visit
will provide great succour to the families of the
victims, reassure them and other residents of the
state that their government has not abandoned them
to their fate, and also serve as a morale booster for
our gallant troops who are battling the terrorists, against all odds. "There is no other democracy in the world in which
that number of schoolchildren will be killed and the
head of government will carry on with business as
usual. Since the killings, President Jonathan has
made a national broadcast in which he mentioned
the killings only as a footnote, instead of making it the central point of the broadcast. "Since the killings, the President has presided over
a wasteful national celebration, in which the drums
were rolled out to mark the country's centenary even
as devastated families were still mourning and those
injured were reeling from their pains. "Since the killings, President Jonathan has been
gallivanting across the country, surreptitiously kick-
starting his electioneering campaign for 2015 under
the guise of receiving some inconsequential political
jobbers now wearing the tag of defectors. This junketing has taken the President everywhere,
including Sokoto, Minna, Ilorin and Onitsha. But he
has pointedly avoided Yobe. To put it mildly, the
father of the nation has been practically dancing on
the graves of those innocent souls. This is not the
stuff of leadership and the President must make amends by visiting Yobe today," APC said. The party said President Jonathan should take a
cue to what obtains in other lands, especially in the
US after which Nigeria has modelled its democracy. "In January 2014, US President Barack Obama flew
to Tennessee, where he spoke at a high school
where students were still reeling from the shooting
death of just one of their classmates; In 2012,
President Obama paid a similar visit to Newtown in
Connecticut, where he met relatives of the 20 schoolchildren and 8 adults who were shot. These
are examples worthy of emulation by President
Jonathan," it said.