The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has said that the comments made by President Goodluck Jonathan during his maiden Media Chat on Monday have shown that he is largely out of tune with the situation in Nigeria.
In a statement issued yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the ACN described as patently superficial and devoid of deep understanding of issues, the President’s comments on such issues as the single-tenure proposal, the Jos crisis and the National Sovereign Conference, just to mention a few.
The statement reads in part, ‘’When the president of a nation talks, citizens must take something concrete away from it. Sadly, that cannot be said of our President’s Maiden Chat on Monday”.
According to the CAN, since sovereignty derives from the people, the President should not be oblivious, or even pretend to be, to the preponderance of the people’s opinion against the single-tenure kite which he is flying.
It said, ‘’Saying he has no regret and indicating he will push forward with the ill-advised single-tenure proposal, even at the expense of more pressing national problems of insecurity and lack of economic development, shows he is not in tune with the same people who voted him into office.
‘’Failing to tell Nigerians how his administration will ameliorate the serious problems of infrastructural decay is a blunder. Missing the opportunity to comment on the fate of Nigerians who are being arrested, detained and killed in Libya by the transitional authorities which his administration has recognised is a serious error of judgement.”
The ACN said the President’s biggest faux pas during his Media Chat was on the lingering Jos crisis , saying that the crisis was – ‘a problem which he failed to exhibit an understanding of the issues at stake or proffer any innovative solution.