Jonathan: I’m Eligible to Run for Second Term

President Goodluck Jonathan

•Says ambition will sink APC  
•Warns Akande to respect truth, his age

By Muhammad Bello

President Goodluck Jonathan  Sunday dismissed the claim by the All Progressives Congress’ (APC) interim National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, that he is statute barred from running for a second term in office.

He also warned him to stop denigrating the Office of the President by using uncomplimentary words to criticise the incumbent.

The president, in a statement by his spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati, described Akande’s criticism as a cheap ploy to gain popularity for the APC and divert attention from the alleged feud between the two prominent chieftains of the opposition party— former Head of State, Major General Muhammadu Buhari, and former Lagos State Governor, Senator Bola Tinubu.

The party, he predicted, would soon be destroyed by the conflicting ambitions of its leaders.
Jonathan’s statement was in response to Akande’s criticism at the weekend that the “presidency is not for a kindergarten president”.

Akande, while fielding questions from reporters at his country home in Ila-Orangun, Osun State, in reference to the president whom he had accused of being incapable of governing Nigeria, said: “What the country needs is a thinking leader not a kindergarten president with no solution to the problems plaguing the nation.”

The president, in the statement by Abati, flayed Akande’s choice of words and also his claim that he is not eligible to run for the 2015 presidential election.

According to him, Akande’s claim was a bid to bait the president, who has not declared his intention whether or not to contest for a second term, to make a categorical statement on his political future.

He said: “Though President Jonathan has not indicated whether or not he is interested in a second term, Chief Akande, who has taken stock of his party and seen that they have no electable presidential material, is already trying to be clever by half by claiming the president is statute-barred from contesting in 2015, saying it will amount to a ‘third term’.

“If this is the winning strategy of the APC, Chief Akande has every reason to panic because the issue of eligibility for election into the Office of the President has been settled by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended, which provides as follows: Section 137 (1) A person shall not be qualified for election to the Office of President if - (b) he has been elected to such office at any two previous elections.

“President Goodluck Jonathan has been elected into office on only one previous occasion and is therefore not statute-barred from running.

“It is clear that the APC is seeking to bait the presidency to respond to it to achieve two purposes. The first purpose is to get their name into the press and gain name recognition for their party. How pathetic.

“The second and more important reason is to divert the attention of the public from the festering feud between Muhammadu Buhari and Bola Tinubu over the overriding ambition of the two men, which is threatening to tear the new contraption, which is mistakenly referred to by the gullible as a party.
“To the discerning, it is only a matter of time before ambition sinks the APC boat. It is only 2013 and already the big masquerades in the party are using undemocratic words like ‘must’, ‘nobody can stop’ and other military terms in discussing their presidential ticket.

“Our advice to the APC is this: treat your party like a democratic association and don't mistake it for the Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) that someone used to force his way to power.”

The statement also lampooned Akande for referring to Jonathan as a “kindergarten president”, saying although the APC leader and his party has the right to claim that they would floor the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2015 elections, he does not have the same right to tell lies, and denigrate the office and person of the president.

It urged the APC chairman to remember that he is an elderly person who should comport himself with dignity instead of behaving in a manner unbecoming of his age and status.

“Chief Bisi Akande has every right to embark on a flight of fancy about the APC beating the PDP in the 2015 general election, but he does no justice to his age and status when he resorts to propagating falsehood, willfully insulting the president of his country, impugning his integrity and desecrating the very office which his party wishes to take over in 2015 by fair or foul means,” it said.

The presidency appealed to Akande and his “fellow-travellers to remember that there are laws against libel and defamation of character in this country, even if there are no legal impediments to indecorous, hypocritical and unpatriotic vituperations".

Describing the remarks by Akande as rude, ill mannered, uncharitable, hypocritical, false and cavalier, it explained that Jonathan is a tireless leader working selflessly on “evolving and implementing workable solutions to Nigeria’s problems”, contrary to the dubious allegations that he “is handling national issues with levity”.

The statement added: “Gross ignorance and lack of consideration” might have prompted Akande to attack the president, adding that his unguarded and intemperate outburst “exhibited not only an unbecoming lack of respect for the person and Office of the President of his country, but also a complete disregard for the patriotic feelings of the millions of Nigerians who voted for President Jonathan and who continue to appreciate his sincere efforts to positively transform the nation”.
“It is very sad and unfortunate that unbridled ambition for the office they constantly impugn and denigrate has blinded Chief Akande and his ilk to the visible accomplishments of the Jonathan presidency.

“Certainly, nothing else but a manic and unscrupulous quest for power could have led them to make such accusations against a president who, amongst other significant achievements, has been praised for his handling of the insurgency in some parts of northern Nigeria where he has used a combination of diplomacy and targeted military force to contain the security threat.

“Nothing else but the relentless pursuit of narrow personal and sectional interests could lead them to make such claims about a president under whose leadership Nigeria's economy has been promoted from a low income economy to a middle income economy by the World Bank and whose leadership has seen the Gross Domestic Product of Nigeria increase at an annual rate of over 6% since he took office,” it added.