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National Publicity Secretary of the AC, Mr. Lai Mohammed, who described the Vice President's reaction to the party's advice to openly declare his asset at the weekend as rude and uncultured, challenged Jonathan to "toe the path of honour" by making open the declaration of his asset in line with the leadership shown by his boss, President Umaru Yar’Adua”.
Mohammed explained that his party "would not stoop so low as to engage the revered office of the VP in exchange of such cheap shots," arguing that every Nigerian entrusted with leadership responsibility is duty bound to be transparent.
He said further that if President Umaru Yar'Adua has shown good example by declaring his assets publicly, it is only honourable that his lieutenants toe that path.
He added that if ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo had made open declaration of his assets while in office, members of his team might have also been encouraged to follow suit.
“Those at the helm of the nation’s affairs owe it a duty to the citizens who supposedly elected them not only to be transparent, but to be seen to be so. The leadership of the country today has shown the way, and it is only honourable – not necessarily a matter of law – for members of his team to follow suit.
He described as laughable, an after-thought and disingenuous the argument that the VP did not publish his assets so that militants would not attack him, wondering if he had declared his assets before his private residence was attacked in Bayelsa.
He also deplored Jonathan's reaction to AC's advice, alleging that the development only affirmed insinuations that persons entrusted with leadership responsibilities by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lack the qualities to assume positions of that magnitude.
“On the insinuation that the AC was fuelling the militancy in the Niger Delta, we can only describe it as a product of warped thinking, especially since the crisis in the Niger Delta started long before the AC came into being.
“What we have done with the statement that so galled the VP is the same thing we have always done: raising the standard of public discourse instead of engaging in cheap mudslinging that will not benefit our long suffering people.
“But then the quality of the VP’s response, especially the resort to personality attacks and the ungainly insinuations, have only confirmed that the materials put up by the PDP for leadership are the least bright and the least qualified for public office,” he added.
The current seed of discord between Jonathan and AC was the offshoot of the comment by the Vice President during a session with reporters at the weekend in Yenagoa that he would not declare his assets publicly, having done so before the Code of Conduct no fewer than seven times.
In reaction, the AC said open declaration of assets was not a legal affair, but a moral question.
But in a swift response, the VP through his Special Assistant on Media, Ima Niboro asked Mohammed if he declared his assets while serving as the Chief of Staff to the governor of Lagos State between 1999 and 2003.
He also asked whether the former Vice President who was AC's presidential candidate at the April 21 election ever openly declared his assets while he was in office.
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