The All Progressives Congress, APC, has sharply criticised the President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration for going on with a lavish celebration of the centenary anniversary of Nigeria in spite of the cold-blood murder murder of over 40 school children in Yobe state Monday night.
In a statement issued in on Thursday, the party said that the government by it’s insensitive celebration, has shown that it places little value on human lives.
“Even as the nation is still counting the death toll from Monday night’s senseless and gruesome murder of our children, and the ceaseless killings of innocent civilians before that, the President has already switched into a celebratory mood, dwelling on the money-wasting centenary-celebrations instead of leading a clearly distraught nation in mourning.”
Interim national publicity secretary of the APC, Lai Mohammed, who signed the statement, said the President’s action sends a wrong signal to the world about the value which the Nigerian government places on the lives of the nation’s children.
“Nothing better illustrates the fact that the President showed more concern about the centenary celebrations than the calamity that befell the nation than the mention, in only about three paragraphs, of the tragedy in a speech that spanned over 40 paragraphs. This is very sad indeed,” the statement said.
The party urged the President to quickly amend his mistakes by visiting the scene of the tragedy to empathize with the families of the victims as well as the government and people of the state, which is what any leader worth his salt will do under the circumstance.
The APC also expressed concern about the huge amount of money the centenary celebration is costing the federal government and called for a massive scale down.
“We should not do what will amount to dancing on the graves of the children whom we have collectively failed. Yes, we cannot bring those children back to life, but we can at least soothe the pains of their families through genuine empathy and soberness,” the party said.