One of the key figures of the former President Olusegun Obasanjo Administration, Akin Osuntokun, has accused the Muhammadu Buhari Administration of penchant for chasing shadows, leaving the substance of issues at stake.
Osuntokun said this in a statement in reaction to an earlier one by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, accusing him of false information on Boko Haram killings during the End-Adha celebration.
He said his only sin was that he did not get the exact location of the killings by the terrorists.
In the statement on Thursday, Osuntokun said: “It is just another demonstration of the penchant of this government for leaving the substance to chase shadows. Ok 68 people were killed in a Borno village rather than 88 in Maiduguri. At the frequency of the prevailing dispensation of daily bloodletting who wouldn’t get the specifics and details mixed up. I’m not the Red Cross who has the institutional capacity to keep every detail of these crimes against humanity. Does it matter that 68 were killed in Maimalari rather than 88 in Maiduguri and we are talking of the same day. Does this mix up make me the enemy of the people rather than Femi Adesina who threatened Nigerians to concede their land to terrorists at the pain of being murdered? Does it make me more a liar than President Buhari who repeatedly claimed that the price of crude oil per barrel had been over $100 since 1999? In public accountability who should the country worry more about between me and those who hold the reins of government who are pointing attention at the speck in my eyes while ignoring the beam lodged permanently in their eyesight?
“Further to what I have said, the two incidents happened the same day – and they occur with such frequency that it is difficult to keep pace with the orgy of bloodletting all over the country almost on a daily basis. Take note that he made no mention of the one reported by Reuters on the same day – that 68 people died. If I’m the enemy of the people by highlighting the failure of the government, what then do you call a government under whose dispensation Nigeria has become an abattoir. Whether it is 68 or 88 people that were killed should a serious and humane government be quibbling about figures? This is yet another confirmation of the cruel and blundering insensitivity of this government -ignoring leprosy while chasing after guinea worm – as the Yoruba would say. And remember this is a government that claimed it has defeated Boko Haram since two years ago.
“You also recall the phrase enemy of the people is the invention of Donald trump – with whom the presidency has aligned itself.”
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