The Clash of the Political Titans: Who is the Winner as Metuh and Lai Mohammed Spar on Sundry Issues?
The Clash of the Political Titans: Who is the Winner as Metuh and Lai Mohammed Spar on Sundry Issues?
The altercations between the Spokespersons of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Alhaji Lai Mohammed, and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olisa Metuh, continued unabated today with both men throwing tantrums at each other.
While Metuh said he has no apologies to offer to the APC, especially its spokesman, Mohammed, for exposing his penchant for barefaced lies, insults and distortion of facts to deceive unsuspecting Nigerians, Mohammed admonished the PDP spokesman to show some decorum in his public statements.
Metuh, in a statement rday, described as “a mockery of self opinion, Mohammed’s early morning tirade wherein he attempted to pontificate on decorum, a field where he has no credentials, being the originator of hate campaign, with which he fouled Nigeria’s political arena and influenced hundreds of young people, who now engage in abusing one another on the social media, thinking that such is what publicity is all about.
“It is, to say the least, a dance of hypocrisy for the APC spokesman to wake the nation up at exactly 7:29 a.m. on Tuesday morning to bemoan his being fittingly described as ‘a renowned liar’, when he, in his widely covered press conference the previous day, called the acting National Chairman of our great party, Prince Uche Secondus, and the entire leadership of our party liars, for exposing the involvement of the APC-led government in the invasion of Akwa-Ibom State government house by the Department of State Services (DSS) in addition to moves to compromise that state governorship election tribunal.
“It is also a common knowledge that during the 2015 campaigns, Mohammed distinguished himself in hauling insults at everyone, including continually denigrating and labelling the person and office of the President of this country, an excursion he saw nothing wrong with, at that time.
"While we appreciate the sleeplessness and nervousness of the APC spokesperson in his desperation to be noticed for an appointment, we have no apologies for exposing his lies and hypocrisy.”
The PDP spokesman added that: “Lai Mohammed, in his early morning outburst, sought to divert attention and failed to address the issues raised by the PDP regarding his proclivity for distortion of fact.
"We therefore want to remind him that Nigerians are still waiting for his explanations for becoming the mouthpiece of the DSS, which has a spokesman and internal machinery for public communication.
“He has failed to address the contradiction in his statement where he claimed that the APC was not privy to the reasons for the DSS' search of the Akwa Ibom State Government House while at the same time explaining that the agency acted within its area of competence and authority.
“Furthermore, apart from ‘a liar’, what words would Lai Mohammed use in describing himself when he, in May this year, nearly scuttled the transition programme with his false statement alleging that the APC team was being frustrated, only for the head of the APC’s Transition Committee, Alhaji Ahmed Joda, to announce that there was nothing of such?
“How else would Mohammed describe himself when he, in June 2014, issued a statement alleging that a plane carrying former Kano State Governor, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, to attend an APC rally in Ekiti State was denied landing permission in Akure, only for Kwankwaso’s Director of Press Affairs, Baba Dantiye, to announce that his boss was at another event in Kano on that date and had no plans to travel to Ekiti State?
“We are not yet talking about the denial of the list of campaign promises upon which the APC rode to power at the centre and the endless propaganda, insults and blackmail hauled at well-meaning Nigerians when they attempt to offer advice on observed infractions and anti-democratic tendencies of the APC administration.
"Our handicap here, however, is that we have in our hands, a ruling party and a government which are unable to articulate any policy direction in the economy or any other critical sector of the polity since its assumption of power in May. Instead, what we are witnessing, sadly, are administrative confusion, abuse of process, constitutional violations, political witch-hunt and sleazes in government quarters.”
But in a counter statement issued yesterday by its National Publicity
Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, APC said Metuh's increasing
resort to the use of putrid language in his statements is
distracting from the message he might want to pass across, while at
the same time sending a bad signal to the younger generation of
Nigerians who look up to him and other politicians.
“Metuh, being the spokesman, first for a ruling party and now for
the main opposition party, puts you on the complex level of a being a role
model and a pace setter. You denigrate your office and your party when
you use that platform to spew out hate and abusive words.
''You might choose to be bombastic, sharply critical and even
aggressive in your statements, but you do not have to resort to the
use of crude language like calling your fellow spokesman a 'renowned
liar', a ‘master liar' or a 'shameless veteran' to make your
point. Apart from distracting from the issues at stake, those words
reflect more on your personality than on the man you have chosen to
skewer, and their vulgarity is stomach-churning,'' it said.
The APC said every statement being issued today would become a
reference material in the weeks, months and years ahead, hence the
need to keep them decent, polished and dignifying, even when they are
hard-hitting.
The party said it has chosen to call the PDP spokesman to order rather
than reply him in kind, hoping he will see the reason for him not to
continue on the path of profanity.
''After all, it was American religious leader, Spencer W. Kimball, who
said 'Profanity is the effort of a feeble brain to express itself
forcibly','' APC said.
The altercations between the Spokespersons of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Alhaji Lai Mohammed, and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olisa Metuh, continued unabated today with both men throwing tantrums at each other.
While Metuh said he has no apologies to offer to the APC, especially its spokesman, Mohammed, for exposing his penchant for barefaced lies, insults and distortion of facts to deceive unsuspecting Nigerians, Mohammed admonished the PDP spokesman to show some decorum in his public statements.
Metuh, in a statement rday, described as “a mockery of self opinion, Mohammed’s early morning tirade wherein he attempted to pontificate on decorum, a field where he has no credentials, being the originator of hate campaign, with which he fouled Nigeria’s political arena and influenced hundreds of young people, who now engage in abusing one another on the social media, thinking that such is what publicity is all about.
“It is, to say the least, a dance of hypocrisy for the APC spokesman to wake the nation up at exactly 7:29 a.m. on Tuesday morning to bemoan his being fittingly described as ‘a renowned liar’, when he, in his widely covered press conference the previous day, called the acting National Chairman of our great party, Prince Uche Secondus, and the entire leadership of our party liars, for exposing the involvement of the APC-led government in the invasion of Akwa-Ibom State government house by the Department of State Services (DSS) in addition to moves to compromise that state governorship election tribunal.
“It is also a common knowledge that during the 2015 campaigns, Mohammed distinguished himself in hauling insults at everyone, including continually denigrating and labelling the person and office of the President of this country, an excursion he saw nothing wrong with, at that time.
"While we appreciate the sleeplessness and nervousness of the APC spokesperson in his desperation to be noticed for an appointment, we have no apologies for exposing his lies and hypocrisy.”
The PDP spokesman added that: “Lai Mohammed, in his early morning outburst, sought to divert attention and failed to address the issues raised by the PDP regarding his proclivity for distortion of fact.
"We therefore want to remind him that Nigerians are still waiting for his explanations for becoming the mouthpiece of the DSS, which has a spokesman and internal machinery for public communication.
“He has failed to address the contradiction in his statement where he claimed that the APC was not privy to the reasons for the DSS' search of the Akwa Ibom State Government House while at the same time explaining that the agency acted within its area of competence and authority.
“Furthermore, apart from ‘a liar’, what words would Lai Mohammed use in describing himself when he, in May this year, nearly scuttled the transition programme with his false statement alleging that the APC team was being frustrated, only for the head of the APC’s Transition Committee, Alhaji Ahmed Joda, to announce that there was nothing of such?
“How else would Mohammed describe himself when he, in June 2014, issued a statement alleging that a plane carrying former Kano State Governor, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, to attend an APC rally in Ekiti State was denied landing permission in Akure, only for Kwankwaso’s Director of Press Affairs, Baba Dantiye, to announce that his boss was at another event in Kano on that date and had no plans to travel to Ekiti State?
“We are not yet talking about the denial of the list of campaign promises upon which the APC rode to power at the centre and the endless propaganda, insults and blackmail hauled at well-meaning Nigerians when they attempt to offer advice on observed infractions and anti-democratic tendencies of the APC administration.
"Our handicap here, however, is that we have in our hands, a ruling party and a government which are unable to articulate any policy direction in the economy or any other critical sector of the polity since its assumption of power in May. Instead, what we are witnessing, sadly, are administrative confusion, abuse of process, constitutional violations, political witch-hunt and sleazes in government quarters.”
But in a counter statement issued yesterday by its National Publicity
Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, APC said Metuh's increasing
resort to the use of putrid language in his statements is
distracting from the message he might want to pass across, while at
the same time sending a bad signal to the younger generation of
Nigerians who look up to him and other politicians.
“Metuh, being the spokesman, first for a ruling party and now for
the main opposition party, puts you on the complex level of a being a role
model and a pace setter. You denigrate your office and your party when
you use that platform to spew out hate and abusive words.
''You might choose to be bombastic, sharply critical and even
aggressive in your statements, but you do not have to resort to the
use of crude language like calling your fellow spokesman a 'renowned
liar', a ‘master liar' or a 'shameless veteran' to make your
point. Apart from distracting from the issues at stake, those words
reflect more on your personality than on the man you have chosen to
skewer, and their vulgarity is stomach-churning,'' it said.
The APC said every statement being issued today would become a
reference material in the weeks, months and years ahead, hence the
need to keep them decent, polished and dignifying, even when they are
hard-hitting.
The party said it has chosen to call the PDP spokesman to order rather
than reply him in kind, hoping he will see the reason for him not to
continue on the path of profanity.
''After all, it was American religious leader, Spencer W. Kimball, who
said 'Profanity is the effort of a feeble brain to express itself
forcibly','' APC said.
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