‘Scoring Cheap Political Points With Ekwueme’s Treatment Is Petty And Shallow’ – Reno Omokri
The Oasis Reporters
November 6, 2017
Making a media stunt by publicising the overseas medical treatment approved for Dr. Alex Ekwueme, Nigeria’s former vice-president has received rebuke, criticism and ridicule from Reno Omokri, ex – New Media aide of former President Goodluck Jonathan who has lambasted President Buhari for trying to reap political capital out of an entitlement due to the former Vice president.
It will be recalled that President Buhari is scheduled to tour the south east where he is least favoured politically and is also the home region of Dr. Alex Ekwueme.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesman, Garba Shehu had announced on Friday that Buhari had directed that the ailing former vice-president be flown abroad for medical treatment.
Shehu added that Buhari offered to help after receiving a brief on the medical condition of the elder statesman.
Omokri condemned making such help a public issue. He also accused the president of attempting to score a “cheap political point”.
While saying that the overseas treatment was Ekwueme’s right, Omokri said Jonathan purchased bullet-proof cars for Buhari without making noise about it
“Treatment abroad is a right of an ex-vice president,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
“President Muhammadu Buhari didn’t do Ekwueme a favour. President Goodluck Jonathan purchased bulletproof vehicles for Buhari without announcing it.
“It is only a petty and shallow administration eager to score cheap political points with a sick man’s health that announces that the President has given the man his due!”
Alex Ekwueme was admitted into a hospital after lapsing into coma at his Enugu residence last weekend. He is in his eighties and was Vice president to former president Shehu Shagari (1979 – 1983), whose administration was violently overthrown and Dr. Ekwueme put in jail, incidentally by then Major General Muhammadu Buhari who aborted Nigeria’s Second Republic after four years and three months to usher in a prolonged military rule that destabilized the country’s nascent democracy.
Thirty two years after, Major General Buhari metamorphosed into a civilian president in the aftermath of President Jonathan’s defeat in a presidential election in 2015.
