Premium Times
The Muslim Rights Concern has stated that President Goodluck Jonathan is embarrassing Nigeria and giving off the impression that the country is a nation of liars.
The group was reacting to the ongoing standoff between Nigeria and Morocco, a North African country over a phone call.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had claimed that the Nigerian President spoke on telephone with his Moroccan counterpart. But the Morrocan Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied there was any phone call.
Its Nigerian counterpart, however, insisted there was a phone call leading Morocco to withdraw its ambassador to Nigeria.
On Friday, President Jonathan admitted that he did not speak with the Moroccan king as claimed by the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
MURIC say it is embarrassed by the incident.
“Like many other patriotic individuals and groups in the country, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) is seriously embarrassed by this avoidable diplomatic conundrum into which the Federal Government (FG) has driven Nigeria.
“It reflected our infantile diplomacy, administrative ineptitude and irreversible leadership failure,” it said in a statement Saturday.
The group said the President Jonathan-led administration has been characterized by a litany of lies and broken promises.
“It only recently became too clever by half when its local propensity to mislead gullible Nigerians assumed an international dimension.
“The manufacturers in FG’s factory of lies simply overreached themselves by taking on foreign countries,” MURIC said adding that Morocco is not alone in rebuffing Nigeria in recent times.
It recalled that American security officials allegedly clashed with their Nigerian counterparts two days ago because the Americans were angry that Nigeria lied by claiming that America supported the postponement of elections.
“It is rather unfortunate that President Jonathan is yet to appreciate the full implication of his admission that he actually did not have a telephone conversation with the Moroccan king.
“It means that Nigeria lied and if Nigeria lied it means our president lied. This is what Mr. President underestimated.
“The underestimation syndrome has eaten deep into Mr. President’s character. After all, he shocked Nigerians by saying that stealing was not corruption.
“He underestimated the kidnapping of the Chibok girls and for weeks he did not believe any girl was abducted. The girls are yet to be found to date.
“He also underestimated the Boko Haram insurgency. He reportedly admitted this much. It cost us thousands of lives and untold suffering.
“Yet Mr. President said the Moroccan saga in which his government has been caught lying was “less important”.
“He considered drawing the opposition into the gay debate as more important. It is nauseating”.
MURIC added that the Moroccan affair is yet to take its full toll and said Nigerians in the diaspora may soon start facing the music.
“It has happened before. They may be subjected to contempt and dehumanization.
Nobody is going to trust citizens of a country whose government takes pleasure in telling lies to both its citizens and the international community,” the group said.
It also said Mr. Jonathan should give Nigerian explanations on the issue.
It said the Presidency always reacts with the speed of light to statements made by opposition parties, wondering why it took him a full week to refute the allegation.
“Will he say he was in total darkness regarding the raging controversy between the Nigerian Foreign ministry and its Moroccan counterpart? Was he also unaware of the recall of the Moroccan ambassador?
“We urge FG to urgently discard its garb of deceit. The international community will address Nigeria the way the country is dressed.
Nigerians deserve transparency.
“We are a people rich in the culture of integrity. This government is an embarrassment and President Jonathan has become both a political and moral liability on Nigeria,” it said.
MURIC also appealed to Nigerians at home and abroad to bring back the nation’s glory by dint of hard-work, honesty and high moral standard.
“We urge the international community not to judge Nigerian citizens by their leader’s yardstick but by individual merit,” it said.
