UN House: Jonathan runs a profligate administration

The opposition party said the president should have known better.

The opposition Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, has accused President Goodluck Jonathan of profligacy by providing N3.2 billion for the rehabilitation of the bombed United Nations, UN, building in Abuja.

In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Rotimi Fashakin, the party also condemned the “nauseous, intemperate and inane mannerism” of Doyin Okupe, the president’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs.

In August, 2011, a suicide bomber rammed his vehicle, packed with bombs, into the UN building leaving a trail of serious injuries and fatalities.

At the first anniversary of the incident, Mr. Jonathan stated the money released would comprise of N2.6 billion for the building and an additional N600 million to provide temporary accommodation.

A refund of $580,000 was promised for the treatment of the victims.

“It did not really matter to this profligate PDP government that the United Nations, in its world-wide operations, has comprehensive insurance for its buildings and workers, even against terrorism,” Mr. Fashakin said.

The party described as “unintelligent” and “utterly fatuous” the response of Dr. Okupe to the assertion by the party’s national leader, Muhammadu Buhari, that the presidency was behind the Boko Haram group.

Last Wednesday, during an interactive session with journalists, Mr. Buhari, a retired general, stated that the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, led government of President Jonathan was the author of the political variant of Boko Haram.

Barely 24 hours later, Dr. Okupe, appearing in a Channels Television’s programme, hit back at the retired general accusing him of campaigning for violence during last year’s election.

“As a party, we have often counseled that the churlish demeanour of Dr. Doyin Okupe is deleterious to the Jonathan regime.

“The nauseous, intemperate and inane mannerism of Dr. Doyin Okupe as a Presidential aide is a collective disgrace to us as Nigerians.

“Whilst it is understandable that there is usually a strong desire to desperately hold on to a rehabilitative Presidential appointment in a clime bedevilled with festering deprivation and corruption; there is nothing noble in talking when there is nothing to be said.

“It was this same capricious but unfounded falsity that Reuben Abati, his colleague in the business of image laundering project for President Goodluck Jonathan, wrote in his Guardian Newspaper column in May 2011; the subject of a libelous litigation that Abati is desperately making attempts to untangle himself from,” the CPC statement said.