Following the wide criticisms and condemnation on that greeted the recent display of campaign posters of president Goodluck Jonathan, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, has said that Jonathan’s office was too important to patronise such cowardly act.
According to Abati, Mr. president has no hands in the printing and pasting of the posters: “The President of Nigeria has an office that is so important that he cannot behave in a cowardly manner. This is a man who is honest and have reputation of being honest.
“Those who are bent on distracting this government have brought out the posters. I repeat that President Jonathan knows nothing about it.”
Asked why the President had not directed security agencies to fish out the persons or group behind the posters, Abati said: “The security agencies have their jobs cut out for them. If they feel there is anything that is likely to disturb the polity, that is likely to affect the integrity of the State or they feel something has happened and they need information, that needs to be investigated, then of course they will do their job.
“They don’t even need to wait for presidential directive. It is part of their normal duty to find out what is happening in the environment particularly if what has happened is a matter of public interest.
“The President does not need to give any order. People whose job is it to ensure that nothing goes wrong within the Nigerian state will do their job.
“They will make their own assessment; they will do their own investigations. If they feel that there is any threat whatsoever to public peace, to rule of law and order, they will make sure that that is not allowed.
“President Jonathan has not launched any campaign for re-election in 2015. He has not asked anybody to go and paste posters around Abuja. Whoever those people are, they are acting on their own. They are not President Jonathan’s agent. They are on to their own mischief.
Abati added that it was too early to be discussing 2015, “The President has been consistent with the issue of 2015. In the last presidential media chat, he said he was not talking about 2015 at this moment.
“He had been given assignment by the Nigerian people which is to see through the transformation agenda, to ensure the different changes he has promised in life and society. That is what he remains committed to.”
Speaking further, the spokesperson said what was playing out shows that “the contest for power in Nigeria is quite a complex one and people will go to any length to push their own agenda.
“This is not coming from the President. When the President takes a position in terms of his own personal involvement or otherwise with regards to the 2015 elections, you can be sure he will come out to Nigerians and say this is where he stands on this matter the same way he did on previous occasions. But the President is not going to adopt this kind of tactics that you see on display,” he said.
