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Written by Akin Durodola, Taiwo Adisa, Ayodele Adesanmi, Dipo Laleye and Leon Usigbe Thursday, 07 October 2010

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan, on Wednesday, came down heavily on people he described as enemies of progress and said that enough was enough of individuals or group of individuals holding a country of 150 million people to ransom.

“Nigeria is bigger than any individual or any collection of individuals. Nobody can hold a country of 150 million people to ransom any more. The interest of a few concerted, ill-motivated individuals cannot be bigger than our national aspirations,” he said.

Jonathan, in his reply to comments made by his friends on the social networking site, Facebook, on the October 1 bomb blasts, reiterated that investigations had shown that some politicians who were bent on seizing power by all means were behind the dastardly act.

According to him, “if the aim of the attackers is to create a sense of insecurity and panic across the nation in order to advance their narrow interests, Nigerians will stand up to them and make it clear that they cannot be intimidated.”

To buttress his point that the blasts and the comments made thereafter by politicians had political undertone, the president noted that there had been unprecedented national tragedy of this nature in Sokoto, Kebbi, Jigawa and Zamfara states, “which the so-called people never addressed nor offered a word of succour to the victims.

“It is unfortunate that an unprecedented national tragedy of this nature has been politicised by people whose only interest is what they can get from the country and not what the country can get from them.

“They specialise in playing one part of the country against the other and riding on sectional sentiments to promote their narrow interests. I believe that Nigerians have grown beyond this parochial mentality.

“To prove to you that their interests are personal and not for the people they claim to represent, you will notice that while this administration has spent considerable time and resources as well as focused attention on the recent floods in Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi and Jigawa states and the cholera epidemic in certain parts of Nigeria, as well as the lead poisoning that has consumed 400 children in Zamfara State, the so-called concerned people have not been known to address any of these issues nor offer a word of succour to the victims.

“This is irrefutable proof that their only focus is how to get power and not the well-being of the long suffering people of Nigeria, whom I have sworn to Almighty God to protect,” the president stressed.

He promised that the Federal Government would share in the pains of the bereaved and the injured, adding that “we will give the best medical care possible to the injured.”

Also, the Senate President, David Mark, on Wednesday, lashed former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida; former Vice-President Atiku Abu-bakar and former Minister of Finance, Alhaji Adamu Ciroma, for allegedly politi-cising the October 1 bomb blasts in Abuja.

The Senate President, who was rounding off debates on the Abuja bomb blasts, said he was disappointed at the comments attributed to some of the political leaders in relation to the bomb blasts.

However, the Senate observed a one-minute silence in honour of those who lost their lives during the incident.

Mark, while concluding deliberations on a motion, Bomb Blasts on Independence Day, sponsored by Senator Anthony Manzo and 36 others, said it was lamentable that some senior citizens would seek to politicise a criminal incident.

Mark said it was regrettable that the politicians were allegedly making inflammatory statements that were capable of destroying the fragile unity of the country.

The Senate President urged the security agencies to work round the clock to ensure that the culprits were apprehended and justifiably punished.

He advised Nigerians to borrow a leaf from the Americans during the September 11, 2011 terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre (WTC) in New York, by coming together to promote Nigeria’s unity and oneness.

The Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, said what happened on October 1 was an embarrassment which, he said, brought shame to the country.

The Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, said the incident was a terrorist act, adding that “a terrorist cannot be a friend of anybody.”

Deputy Minority Whip, Senator Kabiru Gaya, also said it was unfortunate that the blasts happened when Nigeria was celebrating its 50th Independence anniversary.

Meanwhile, General Babangida, on Wednesday, reacted for the first time to the bomb blasts which claimed 14 lives and injured 42 others in Abuja on October 1.

He said “it is idiotic for anybody to link him with the incident.”

IBB said “it is idiotic to associate me with something that will threaten the unity of Nigeria, especially on a symbolic day like that.”

General Babangida told newsmen at his Minna Hilltop residence, after receiving a bus donated to his campaign organisation by the Nigerian in the Diaspora Northern America and Europe chapters.

“I fought a war to make sure Nigeria is one, I am still carrying the strap line up till today, I don’t want anybody to carry it.

“I cannot do anything to threaten the unity of Nigeria, only idiots will associate me with such a terrible thing.”

The former military president also said his campaign organisation director, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, who was questioned by the security operatives in connection with the incident, could not have had any hand in it.

General Babangida said people cast their imaginative minds on Dokpesi because “Nigerians have fertile minds; his arrest is borne out of the imaginative and fertile minds of Nigerians,” adding, however, that “it’s is the price he is paying as a politician.”

Babangida blamed the security agencies for not nipping the incident in the bud, saying that “nobody has disputed that the government was given notice by the bombers.”

IBB said “you don’t need more than 24 hours to remedy it if you are informed, two days are more than enough time for reaction, which is vital to security,” adding that “I am not blaming anybody, but there is a lapse.”

On why he failed to attend the country’s 50th Independence anniversary in Abuja, Babangida said he did not believe in the whole concept and the expenditure that accompanied it.

Meanwhile, the Federal Executive Council (FEC), on Wednesday, deliberated on the Independence day bomb blasts and resolved to stand firm with President Jonathan in handling the situation.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, conveyed the cabinet members’ support to President Jonathan, whom they urged not to be distracted by the occurrence.

The Minister of Information and Communications, Professor Dora Akunyili, who briefed State House correspondents at the end of the weekly FEC meeting in the State House, said the president had given his commitment to fish out all those who perpetrated the act.

Meanwhile, the council has approved $6.8 million as Global Environment Facility (GEF) grant to support the proposed scaling up of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) practice knowledge and coordination project of the Federal Government.