ABUJA, Federal Republic of Nigeria (Vanguard) — Nigeria government has refuted the claim of the leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, that he was offered the slot of Vice President of a proposed interim government by President Goodluck Jonathan, as part of plans to scuttle the forthcoming general elections.
Tinubu had said he rejected the offer but the Presidency fired back that Tinubu was lying out of desperation, especially as the President had repeatedly denounced the idea of an interim government in place of elections as preposterous, unconstitutional and treasonable.
Jonathan, through his spokesman, Reuben Abati, insisted that he had never discussed that idea with anybody and he has never proposed it at any forum because, as a democratically elected President, his ambition can never be to head an Interim National Government under any circumstances.
“He (Jonathan) is going into this presidential election on the basis of the records of his achievements; on the conviction that he has served Nigerians well and the overwhelming majority of Nigerians are appreciative of the achievements of his administration and are, therefore, solidly behind him and will vote for him massively on March 28.
“He, therefore, has no reason whatsoever to support such an unconstitutional proposition as Interim National Government, which in its fullest will amount to assault on democratic principles under this circumstance,” he said.
Abati further pointed out that it would be absurd and ridiculous, if not impossible, in Nigerian political configuration to have an ING arrangement with two southerners as President and Vice President.
“But the Tinubu camp putting out that statement were so much in a hurry to engage in their usual game of deceiving the public of propagandaism of the current electoral process, that the emptiness, the hollowness, the shallowness of their proposition escaped them.
“And what I have tried to do is to expose that shallowness, that hollowness and to appeal to all right-thinking persons to dismiss it as another gimmick coming from a desperate political group, seeing that defeat is staring them in the face, are resorting to greater desperation.
“And who knows, we may witness even far greater desperation from their camp as we get closer to election day,” Abati told State House correspondents as he warned Nigerians to be wary of “enemies of this country who seem determined to pull the country down with, with black information, and do not deserve to be given the opportunity to enjoy undeserved opportunities.”
