Foremost environmental and human rights activist, Ann-Kio Briggs, has berated the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, for seeking former President Goodluck Jonathan’s support in the forthcoming 2023 general election.
Briggs, who spoke with The PUNCH on Wednesday while reacting to Tinubu’s consultative visit to Jonathan at his Abuja residence on Tuesday, described the APC standard flagbearer as “shameless”.
She said that Tinubu should be ashamed of himself for consulting Jonathan over his presidential race a few years after heaping verbal attacks and insults on the former President and his wife, Patience, because he was a minority President from Ijaw in the Niger Delta.
Briggs noted that that Tinubu was one of the opponents of the Jonathan administration, who mobilised the opposition against him and called him all sorts of derogatory names.
She said, “Politics in Nigeria is a filthy game about personalities, not about the people. If not, Tinubu should be too ashamed to visit Jonathan and sit down on a chair in his house.
“This is a man (Tinubu) that cannot differentiate between politics of ideology and shameful politics. They hauled insults at him (Jonathan), they hauled insults at his wife.
“They constructed effigies to mock Jonathan; they organised ‘Occupy Nigeria’ and paraded with coffins and did all kinds things against Jonathan. Today, they are shamelessly visiting Jonathan, sitting on his chair in his house.”
Briggs described Jonathan as “a kind-hearted man and Ijaw son” who had been vindicated on many fronts, stressing that he had acknowledged while in office that he was the most insulted and abused president.
The activist said Tinubu and his ilk should realise that the oil and gas resources in Jonathan’s Niger Delta remained the sources of their feeding and wellbeing of Nigeria, adding that “after all the insults, calling him clueless, they are now visiting Jonathan and sitting in his house.”
Earlier on her Facebook page, Briggs had expressed similar views, saying that all anti-Jonathan elements, including the APC presidential candidate, would have their payback time.
She stated that Tinubu could not hate Ijaw people in 2015 when Jonathan lost his re-election bid and hoped to achieve victory in the forthcoming presidential poll in Ijaw land.
Briggs further said, “One by one, from top to bottom, they all go back to Jonathan to receive their shovel of hot coal on their heads. I will tell the APC/Tinubu for free that if Ijaws vote for him, it will not be at a level for him to claim victory in Ijaw nation. He cannot hate Ijaws in 2015 and expect Ijaws to vote for him in 2023. Jonathan is an Ijaw son and man, but all Ijaws are not Jonathan.
“Go and collect your debt from Buhari, Jonathan no get vote for you inside our creeks, swamps and mangroves. Ijaw youths are not going to eat the corn and groundnut you are offering, we have enough plantain, fish and all the oil and gas we need to import all we want to eat.”
