Beware Of Your Aides, BBOG Member Tells Jonathan

By Unknown

Friday 18 July 2014

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A member of the #BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) campaign group, Seun Fakunade has written to President Goodluck Jonathan, advising him to be wary of his aides, saying they were bringing his exalted office as number one citizen of the country to disrepute with their needless attacks on the group.

Specifically, Fakunade cautioned the president to beware of his senior special assistant on public affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, who, he said, was using his position as a presidential aide to settle personal scores with a leader of the group and former education minister, Mrs Obiageli Ezekwesili, to the detriment of the president.

It would be recalled that Okupe had tweeted on his Twitter handle how Ezekwesili turned down his gesture when he approached her to greet her.

Expressing doubt that the letter, which was widely distributed in the media by Okupe and attributed to have been written by the president was actually written by him, Fakunade said, “I am certain the person of the president of Nigeria will never write such. Whatever the grievances Dr. Okupe has with Ms Ezekwesili, the office of the president should not be reduced to such dance of shame in the media.”

On Okupe’s allegation that it was Ezekwesili who instigated the refusal of the families of the escaped Chibok girls to attend a meeting scheduled by the president, the BBOG member said, “I am quite sure Ms Ezekwesili, who remains one Nigerian with incorruptible integrity and who desperately wants these girls rescued, will never resort to such act as portrayed by Dr Okupe.

“Honestly, I keep wondering how you will allow yourself and your noble office to be such ridiculed by such dramatis personae as aides. Regardless of the constant attack and publicity strategy of the establishment to frustrate, derail and divide us; we stay strong and committed to demanding that the girls be brought back alive,” he wrote.

Explaining why the Chibok girls’ parents may have shied away from meeting with the president, Fakunade reminded Jonathan that while it took him (Jonathan) three weeks to acknowledge that the schoolgirls had been abducted, “the arrest that befell members of the movement after the scheduled meeting they had with your wife, the First Lady of Nigeria, Mrs Patience Jonathan” was another possible reason