Do Not Institute Lying as State Policy, APC Tells Presidency

The All Progressive Congress (APC) has, again, cautioned the Presidency against peddling lies as a state policy while it frowned at the problems confronting Nigeria’s healthcare system under the Jonathan administration.

APC also called on President Goodluck Jonathan and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to tender unreserved apology to Nigerians based on the false claim that Mr. President spoke to the Moroccan King Mohammed VI, when no such telephone conversation ever took place.

Addressing journalists on Monday, at the APC presidential campaign head office, Deputy Director General, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora and Director of Media, Mallam Garba Shehu, said Jonathan’s
belated admission that he never spoke with the Moroccan King at any time didn’t go far enough adding that instead of apologising to Nigerians for the diplomatic embarrassment his administration had caused
Nigeria, the Presidency was blaming ‘some fall guys at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’.

They said “we, in the APC, are outraged and embarrassed beyond words, that the Jonathan government can elevate lying as a state policy. The false claim, that President Jonathan spoke with the Moroccan King Mohammed VI, when no such telephone conversation ever took place, has made Nigeria a laughing stock in the eyes of the world. It is yet another in the series of a lying Presidency”.

“By our tradition and culture, lying is not encouraged, even among children. Why did President Jonathan have to wait until Morocco recalled its Ambassador to Nigeria before he issued a clarification on the issue?”
According to Mamora, as the President, the buck stops at his desk, and it was, therefore, inappropriate for the President to dismiss a serious diplomatic gaffe with levity and blame some poor, anonymous
civil servants for the row. He should just own up, apologise and stop lying, not only this, but, on several others, of which they are culpable. A word is enough for the wise”.

Meanwhile, the APC has also frowned at the problems confronting Nigeria’s healthcare system under the Jonathan administration.
The APC observed that four years after, Nigeria’s health institutions, especially, at the tertiary level had witnessed a systemic decay with doctors and other health workers’ prolonged labour disputes
never seen in history of Nigeria.

According to Mamora, salaries of most health workers at the federal level have not been paid till date.
He maintained that these were the issues in the forthcoming election and that the APC would focus on them “as we draw closer to the March 28 presidential election. It is the date when the destiny of Nigeria will change for good”.
He added that “recently, on the World Health Organisation Ranking of the World Health Systems, Nigeria was ranked 187 out of 190 countries. South Africa, Angola, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco ranked better than Nigeria despite our oil wealth yet our public officers and their family members travel abroad for most mundane health related matters.”

“According to UNICEF Nigeria, every day, Nigeria loses about 2,300 under-five-year olds and 145 women of childbearing age. This makes the country the second largest contributor to the under–five and maternal mortality rate in the world. A study conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, the influential British journal, ranked Nigeria as the worst place for a baby to be born in 2013”, he noted.

He observed that “a very senior journalist, Mr. Dimgba Igwe, former Deputy Managing Director of the Sun Newspapers died, recently, because Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), didn’t have the equipment to provide necessary life support and emergency response for him after an accident.”

“The same happened three weeks ago to Mr. Dada Eriye, Publisher of Bravo Magazine, when the same LUTH could not provide immediate help for him following a second degree burns he suffered
while trying to put petrol into his generator as a result of power failure. This is how Nigeria’s health system kills the brightest and best among us”, he added.