Tinubu Lied in London, Presidency Says

THE Presidency on Thursday
accused former Lagos State
governor and leader of Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Senator
Bola Tinubu, of lying over his
remarks at an event in London
where he presented President
Goodluck Jonathan as incapable of
tackling the challenges confronting
the country.
Addressing a news conference in
Abuja on Thursday, Senior Special
Assistant (SSA) to the President on
Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, noted
that at a time Tinubu's new political
party, the All Progressives Congress
(APC) was battling unsuccessfully to
produce a new set of leadership,
Tinubu was in London telling lies
about the Jonathan's administration.
Saying that government has noted
"several inconsistencies, political
razzmatazz and utter falsehoods
contained in the address," Okupe
said Tinubu's remarks were not only
wide off the mark but betrayed the
hypocrisy "for which the national
leader of ACN and his party have
become very well known."
He said that the ACN leader's claim
that "everyone claims to be
democratic but not everyone is
faithful to his or her word," was "a
clear case of self-indictment,"
arguing that "any keen and
discerning observer of Nigeria's
democracy will attest that Senator
Tinubu and his ACN are completely
lacking in democratic temper."
Okupe remarked that the ACN as a
party was not only undemocratic but
blatantly autocratic and makes no
pretenses about it, saying "it is clear
that ACN leadership's understanding
of democracy is tainted and skewed
by his undemocratic mindset, which
has seen him exert authoritarian
control over the party. With such
disposition, it is easy to understand
his warped and defective reading of
the democratic situation in Nigeria."
According to the Presidential aide,
that paper that Nigeria under the
leadership of Jonathan was a
dysfunctional democracy was not
only the height of ignorance but
equally of unbridled mischief.
He added: "Tinubu must be talking
of an imaginary Nigeria not the
Nigeria we all know and live in. His
submission on our democracy is
nothing but wild conjecture,
completely unrelated to reality.
"For the records, the Nigerian
democracy is robust, vibrant and
unattenuated. Unlike the ACN
chieftain would have us believe,
Nigerian democracy does not stand
in any dark.