HERE HE GOES AGAIN: Femi Fani-Kayode dares Jonathan to charge him for treason
Former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, on Monday kicked against the Presidency’s threat to charge some members of the All Progressives Congress with treason.
The President, through his Special
Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, had on Sunday said
that those “threatening fire and brimstone” and calling for his removal
should be ready to face charges for treason.
Almost immediately, the Special
Assistant to the President on New Media, Reno Omokri, as if to affirm’s
the Presidency’s position, went on Twitter to describe members of the
APC as ‘desperadoes’.
Omokri tweeted, “The desperadoes in the
APC are advised to focus on selling themselves to Nigerians rather than
raising false alarm. Whether the APC likes it or not, the President will
continue to revive the railways, power and the economy, even in their
states.
“President Jonathan was elected by the
Nigerian electorate and the APC cannot get from the back door
what the
electorate denied them. The APC’s era of politics with bitterness is
long gone. We are in an era of politics without ‘betterness’ which
President Jonathan personifies.”
Responding to the comments, Fani-Kayode,
a member of the APC and an ardent critic of Jonathan on social media,
says he is waiting to be charged with treason as threatened by the
Presidency.
“GEJ has threatened the leaders of the
APC with treason for calling on the National Assembly to impeach him
(Jonathan). I dare the President to carry out his threat,” he wrote in a
message posted on Twitter.
But another critic of the President,
former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and Deputy National
Secretary of the APC, Mallam Nasir EL-Rufai, has yet to respond to the
threat.
Meanwhile, some Nigerians have urged
Jonathan not to plunge the nation into a fresh crisis by clamping down
on the critics of his administration. They argued that calls for the
removal of the President in a democracy, where citizens have the
constitutional right to do so, should not result in charges for treason.
Writing on Abati’s website, www.reubenabti.com.ng,
one Magaji described the threat as a subtle way of intimidating the
masses and preventing them from expressing their opinion about the
Jonathan administration.
“No meaningful Nigerian will believe
that Jonathan is running a peoples government. What is the illegality of
impeachment that warrants a threat with treason? Perhaps you are
ignorant of Nigeria’s supreme law – the 1999 constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria.
“Jonathan is one of the worst presidents
we ever have in the history of this nation. Come 2015, he will surely
see the result of his leadership.
“It is time for the President to stop
treating people as second class citizens. We are all equal in eyes of
the law and the privilege of ruling this nation is not a license to
oppress,” Magaji wrote.
In another message posted on Twitter,
Dare Taiwo warned that a clampdown on people calling for the impeachment
of the President will amount to a repression of the freedom of speech.
Arguing that comments attributed to the
Presidency were increasingly becoming pedestrian, Taiwo said, “Treason?
Do you (Presidency) know how many times the Tea Party and Rush Limbaugh
(conservative American radio talk show host and political commentator)
have called for the impeachment of American President, Barack Obama?
“Get enlightened! You need to stop
responding to asinine comments. Comments like this make you guys in Aso
Rock sound pedestrian.”
Also, Muhuyi Magaji said it was wrong on the part of Jonathan or his advisers to equate calls for his impeachment with treason.
He advised the President to study the
democratic history and the constitution of the country well before
allowing himself to be misled into fulfilling his threat.
“Impeachment Is not equal to treason.
Not even during the stormy days of the Olusegun Obasanjo administration
did the Presidency equate the several calls for Impeachment and removal
from office as treason,” Magaji said.
In a single tweet to
Abati, one Aminu Ayama, laments that his interpretation of the
Presidency’s threat is that “treason is translated into going against
the wish of the President under the current so-called democratic
leadership.”
