Attack on Buhari shows we’re not Boko Haram sponsors —APC

Attack on Buhari shows we’re not Boko Haram sponsors —APC

THE All Progressives Congress (APC) said the constant allegation that its leaders are sponsors and sympathisers of Boko Haram has been disproved by the Wednesday’s attack on its central figure, former head of state, General Muhammadu Buhari.

The party condemned the twin bombing of Kaduna, saying the consequences of Buhari being caught by the attack were being imagined.

A statement from its spokesperson, Lai Mohammed, in Lagos, also expressed shock over the attack which targeted Buhari and a prominent cleric, Dahiru Bauchi.

It added that the attempted assassination of General Buhari had changed the narrative about the insurgent group and knocked the bottom off the alleged sinister and partisan colouration given to the insurgency by the Federal Government.

The party said while no one had yet claimed responsibility for the attack, the mere fact that it occurred at all was a lose-lose situation for the President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration.

“Whether it is Boko Haram or not, one thing remains: This government has failed woefully in its core constitutional duty of protecting the security and welfare of the citizenry. And we mean all the citizens, not just the leaders.

“Contrary to the simplistic and clearly selfish portrayal of the Boko Haram insurgency as a sinister plot to bring down the government of Jonathan, it should now be clear to the Federal Government that Boko Haram is an enemy of Nigeria and of all of humanity.

“It is a real problem that is capable of consuming this country if immediate and urgent steps are not made now by the government to move away from its politicisation of the crisis, its decision to use it as a trump card for President Jonathan’s re-election and exploit it as a ticket to international relevance for the president.

“If anything untoward had happened to General Buhari on Wednesday, the consequences are only better imagined than witnessed,” the party said.

It added that “if, indeed, the APC is behind Boko Haram and General Buhari is a sympathiser of the evil group, as the Federal Government wants the world to believe, could it be that the insurgents do not know their leaders or sympathisers, assuming they are behind the attack?

“If they are not responsible for the attack, doesn’t that support the theory in some circles that Boko Haram has become a franchise, hence there is the Boko Haram of Abubakar Shekau and the political Boko Haram?

“Whatever happens now, the repulsive theory of the PDP-led government that the opposition APC is using Boko Haram to truncate the administration of Jonathan is up in flames.

“Therefore, it is time for them to change the narrative, see Boko Haram for what it is - an enemy of Nigeria - and rally the citizenry, irrespective of their political, ethnic or religious affiliation, behind the government’s efforts to tackle it decisively.”

It asked that instead of dividing Nigerians along religious, ethnic and political lines, President Jonathan should borrow a leaf from his predecessors, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua, who never said the Niger Delta militancy was aimed at their government or people, but tackled it headlong.

The party reiterated its earlier stand that only a non-partisan approach would galvanise Nigerians against Boko Haram, which, it alleged, was rooted more in the years of bad governance that had resulted in mass unemployment, corruption and economic imbalances.

It repeated its offer to work with the Federal Government to battle Boko Haram and its call for a national stakeholders’ conference to help fashion out a comprehensive counter-insurgent blueprint for the nation.