12th March, 2012
The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has warned President Goodluck Jonathan to henceforth discourage sycophancy in his government saying that it is aimed at drowning him.
This came from the opposition party in reaction to the naming of the Maitama District Extension in Abuja, the nation’s capital, after the President, who has preferred to remain silent on the controversial gesture.
The party called the action of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Bala Mohammed, a ‘poisoned chalice which the President must immediately refuse to drink from.’
The party reminded President Jonathan that even the late Gen. Murtala Mohammed who conceptualized Abuja as the country’s capital did not have any district named after him.
ACN’s National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who reacted to the action advised Jonathan to reject it as a matter of decency and modesty, saying it is better for his predecessor to name a monument after him if he does well in office now.
“A President who has been described by his erudite Spokesman as ‘thoughtful’, ‘highly experienced’, and ‘scholarly’ is definitely not expected to allow himself to be hoodwinked into accepting such an offer of having anything named after him while still in office.
“It is the height of immodesty for a sitting President to agree to any decision to name a street, a monument or a district after him, even when he may not have been the one who initiated the idea.
“This probably explains why ‘District Six’ in Cape Town, South Africa, was not changed to ‘Mandela’s District’ when he (Mandela) was in office, or why the Manhanttan area of New York has not been named after US President Barack Obama,” the party said, advising the President to rather concentrate on delivering the dividends of democracy to the people.
—Eromosele Ebhomele