ACN flays Jonathan’s defence on anti-graft claim

Posted by admin Action Congress of Nigeria, Party Politics Thursday, October 4th, 2012

The Action Congress of Nigeria has criticised the decision by the Presidency to blame the inaccurate claim on Nigeria’s anti-corruption efforts, contained in the President’s 52nd Independence anniversary speech, on the media.

It described the defence as “a product of poor thinking,” saying it is “worse than the original gaffe.”

This was contained in a statement by the ACN National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Thursday.

The party said, “It is lazy and irresponsible for handsomely-remunerated presidential aides to lift the claim of Nigeria’s supposed progress in the anti-corruption effort from a newspaper and insert such in a presidential speech without confirmation.

“It is even worse that those who committed this gaffe and made their principal and the entire country to look bad are justifying their action and, instead of owning up, shifting the blame to the so-called opposition media and the political opposition.

“What was the media supposed to do in the face of such egregious lies? Reinforce the lies to Nigerians and the entire world? And should the opposition have applauded such a spurious claim?”

According to the party, in today’s informatioin technology world, it would not have cost anything to ask Transparency International to verify the claim reportedly made by a local newspaper.

The ACN added, “The point that is lost on these indolent aides is that every presidential speech is a reference document. Therefore, packing it with lies and unverified claims is totally condemnable, in addition to being a disservice to the President.”

The party, therefore, advised the president’s speech writers and communication officers to take their job more seriously instead of running to the press at the slightest opportunity to lambast the opposition.wp_posts