The opposition All Progressives Congress has insisted that the rallies being held across the geo-political zones by the so-called Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) represent an assault on the intelligence and sensibilities of Nigerians, at a time of unprecedented security and health challenges in the country.
In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in Lagos State on Sunday, it noted that no amount of inversion of reasoning by the TAN foot soldiers can wash the rallies clean of shame and disgust.
It said, “Only those described as ‘morons and sycophants’ by Prof. Wole Soyinka can be engaging in celebratory rallies when soldiers are dying on the Boko Haram battle front, when citizens are daily being dispatched to their graves by insurgents and when the country is still reeling from the challenge of Ebola that has claimed many innocent lives”.
The party wondered how the inauguration of APC’s regional executives in Sokoto State penultimate weekend could be equated with the rallies being held across the country by TAN, which is another name for shame, incompetence, cluelessness, cruelty, insincerity and insensitivity.
It said, “If President Goodluck Jonathan had not been running a government hallmarked by impunity, there is no way any political party would have brazenly kick-started electioneering campaign under the guise of an NGO that is coordinated by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Ministers, State Governors and other public officials, at a time like this.
“The PDP-led Federal Government and its ‘NGO’ called TAN are bare-faced liars and cheats. They have seized an undue advantage over every other party by defying the nation’s laws to start an early electioneering campaign, and no one, not even INEC, dares call them to order! Little wonder, their podiums are collapsing under the weight of their lies”.
The party accused TAN’s self-serving Director of Communications, Udenta Udenta, of attempting to pull the wool over the eyes of Nigerians by shamelessly justifying the insane rallies.
It said, “We have the following posers for the deceptive and pigs-at-the trough TAN organisers: If Mr Udenta and his co- travelers were parents, relations or friends of any of the over 200 missing Chibok schoolgirls, wouldn’t such TAN rallies offend their sensibilities?
“If Mr Udenta or any of his co-travelers in TAN had lost a relation or dear one to Ebola in Port Harcourt, won’t such a rally in the same city about the same time offend their sensibilities? Can Mr. Udenta tell Nigerians the source of funding of TAN? Can Mr. Udenta tell Nigerians how much TAN has spent so far in canvassing for Jonathan’s re-election or for that matter how much it spends daily on radio jingles, television and newspapers advert, billboards etc? Can Mr. Udenta tender to the public TAN’s audited account?
“We know Mr. Udenta has no answers to these posers, but we have no iota of doubt that Nigerians know that TAN is funded and powered by the massive corruption of this government, including but not limited to the missing $20 billion, the over one trillion fuel subsidy scam, the kerosene subsidy scam, the hundreds of thousands of barrels of our crude oil being stolen daily, the Pension scam, the Malibu Oil scandal etc. We also know through which top functionaries of government funds are funneled to TAN”.
APC said it would not stop calling for an end to the TAN rallies until common sense prevails and the president, who waited for an international condemnation of his BringBackJonathan hash tag before taking action, is again forced to call his selfish sycophants to order.
It said, “Our soldiers are combating Boko Haram literally with their bare hands and under the most intolerable conditions and our government is partying around town. As we write, a Nigerian war plane has been declared missing in the battle zone and our government is celebrating. Clearly, if a fraction of the funds TAN had been expending in its multi-billion naira adverts on radio, television, newspapers, billboard, online and on London buses, not to talk of the mobilization for rallies, can be made available to our soldiers, Boko Haram would have long been forgotten.
“Again, these times call for deep reflection and not for deep throats. These times call for cool-headed and decent men and women to realize that a nation at war cannot be celebrating, because it sends the very wrong message to the men and women deployed to the battle zone to protect our nation. This is not about politics, this is about common sense, sensibilities and decency”.
One of d best article from APC.this is about d masses n not APC as a party.shame on PDP,shame on TAN n shame on d presidency.
Sir,Lai Moh’d you are sounding ridiculous.Surely,you are doing the job you are being paid for,nonetheless endeavour to display wisdom and forsightfuless on issues that are already receiving commendable attention.Are you saying that you’ve not being attending public function since the ebola epidemic? Remember,the Osun election and the likes. There is no wisdom in disparaging the TAN activities.