PLANS to name Maitama District Extension after President Goodluck Jonathan has been faulted by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), which asked him to reject it.

The party said the move was a “poisoned chalice”, which the President should not drink from.

In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by ACN National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said while Jonathan might not have been the one behind the decision, “it is incumbent on him to exhibit a sense of decency and modesty – which many have attributed to him – by rejecting it.       

“A President who has been described by his erudite spokesman as ‘thoughtful, highly experienced’, and ‘scholarly’ is definitely

not expected to allow himself to be hoodwinked into accepting such an

offer of having anything named after him while still in office.

“In the first instance, none of President Jonathan’s predecessors, including the man who initiated the Abuja idea, the late Gen. Murtala Mohammed and the man who finally moved the capital city from Lagos to Abuja, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, has a district named after him, whether in or out of office”, Mohammed said.

The party said it is the height of immodesty for a sitting President to agree to any decision to name a street, a monument or a district after him, even when he may not have been the one who initiated the idea. “This probably explains why ‘District Six’ in Cape Town, South Africa, was not changed to ‘Mandela’s District’ when he (Mandela) was in office, or why the Manhanttan area of New York has not been named after US President Barack Obama”, it said.

Mohammed said in Nigeria, there was no scintilla of doubt that Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos would reject any offer to

name the Victoria Island Extension after him while in office.

The ACN said Jonathan should know that whoever is behind the idea to name the Maitama District Extension after him is

not doing so for altruistic reasons and he should not fall for such a cheap idea that amounts to self-glorification.

“When he leaves office and on the basis of the legacy he is perceived to have left behind, his successor will decide – and Nigerians will acclaim – which street or monument should be named after him”, the party said.

The party, therefore, urged the President to concentrate on how to deliver the dividend of democracy to Nigerians who have been disappointed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administrations since 1999.

-Guardian

Posted by admin on Mar 11 2012. Filed under Action Congress of Nigeria, Party Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry