The Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) has described as illogical and hate-filled diatribe, the statement credited to the National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Lai Mohammed, in which he castigated the movement and criminalized its nationwide mass conscientization rallies.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja, Dr. Udenta Udenta, likened the statement to “Talibanization of Nigeria’s political discourse space through the deployment of Dark Ages narrative illogic of hate, strife, discord, moral impunity and angst.”
TAN, he said would not waste it’s on human beings “the late Rt Hon Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe described in 1978 as the political nincompoops and scallywags of contemporary Nigerian politics”.
Udenta, who heads Communications and Strategy Unit of TAN however, deemed it expedient to set a few records straight, he states:
FACT ONE: “TAN’s nationwide rallies is a rational consequence of the exponential growth of its strategic trajectory, from media programming to an all-inclusive citizens conversation in an expansive liberal democratic space.
“Our mass dialogue series has taken the movement to the South East, South West, South South and the North Central zones. This nationwide dialogue will continue on 20 September 2014 at Gombe for the North East zone and on 27 September 2014 in Kano for the North West zone.
“Thereafter, on 30 September 2014 at the Eagle Square Abuja TAN will hold the Grand Finale of its citizens dialogue aimed at celebrating Nigeria and its current leadership. Lai Mohammed’s primitive tantrums, schizophrenic political mindset; the type that produces a duality of irreconcilable visions, perverse sense of judgment and cess-pit narrative and discursive mode will not deter us from accomplishing our set objective.
“The rallies have come to stay and those who don’t like them just have to live with them for the sake of their sanity and move on to other, hopefully, noble political pursuits.
‘Let me state in passing that the totality of Nigeria’s post-colonial democratic infrastructure, just as in the developed liberal democracies of Europe and the USA, recognizes the legitimate existence of independent political pressure groups that are supportive of the varied political interests operating in established political geographies. It is no fault of TAN that individuals and groups sympathetic to Lai Mohammed’s political tendency are crippled by intellectual sterility and strategic imbecility as to be incapable of constructing a platform that will give TAN a run for its money, energy and efforts.
“If anything, the massive resources this tendency has somehow accumulated from its humble beginnings in 1999 are, if the truth must be told, staggering and beyond reason. Money cannot therefore be the issue, or can it?
FACT TWO: “TAN has created over 45 television jingles that have been broadcast over 4,000 times by four of Nigeria’s leading stations. And this is in addition to countless radio jingles and over 250,000 copies of its rally brochures containing pictures, facts and figures of President Jonathan’s National Transformation Agenda in living action.
“We are yet to see just one counter electronic media programming attacking our well-researched documentation of developments occurring in different national sectors in the past three and half years, or just one OP-ED refuting the veracity of our presentations.
“What is served us daily from Lai Mohammed’s Verkhovenskian imagination is the torrent of well rehearsed falsehood, empty political prattle, pompous self-enfoolment dressed up as political fact, self-righteous indignation that bothers on pious cant and excess of bellicosity demeaning of a democrat.
“As we await just one deconstructive reading of TAN by the APC we will resign ourselves, as Nigerians have already done, to Lai Mohammed’s stale mythologies of politics and power and gross ritualization of inconsequential political fables which have no bearing to truth.
FACT THREE: “Lai Mohammed and the APC have made so much noise about the sources of TAN’s financing without providing one shred of evidence to back up the torrents of abuses, insinuations, innuendoes, and outright accusations that flow steadily from their very voluble and fertile imagination.
“The fact remains that TAN has neither sought nor received a kobo from the Federal government, all its ministries, agencies or department in executing its programmes and projects. Anybody who has evidence to the contrary should present same to the public or shut up for good.
“But for those who are set on an inexorable course of political perdition through the irrational criminalization of opinions, perspectives and viewpoints that counter theirs they earn, not our condemnation nor even contempt; they earn our sympathy given the surreal cloud of ethical infamy that envelops the political spaces the dwell in.
FACT FOUR: “TAN is a proud Nigerian platform and a thousand, nay, a million hate-filled words cannot deter us from bringing democracy closer to the people through robust conversation and dialogue that increase political understanding and participation. For those who play politics with terrorism and extremist insurgencies we leave them to their conscience.
“For those who denigrate the person and office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on a daily basis, no matter the degree of divergence of political opinions and the struggle for power, we leave them in their world of political prodigality, infantile delusions and perfidious political enterprises. For those who desecrate the homestead abroad in search of vainglorious fame and the accolade of foreigners, we will not call them traitors but we know they are no patriots.
“As members of our armed forces struggle courageously to keep our land safe and free by riding it of terrorists they will constantly earn our prayers, support and encouragement. There are some in our midst who want us to live by the rules set by extremists wherever they appear; in an environment of pervasive fear, uncertainty and siege mentality.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja, Dr. Udenta Udenta, likened the statement to “Talibanization of Nigeria’s political discourse space through the deployment of Dark Ages narrative illogic of hate, strife, discord, moral impunity and angst.”
TAN, he said would not waste it’s on human beings “the late Rt Hon Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe described in 1978 as the political nincompoops and scallywags of contemporary Nigerian politics”.
Udenta, who heads Communications and Strategy Unit of TAN however, deemed it expedient to set a few records straight, he states:
FACT ONE: “TAN’s nationwide rallies is a rational consequence of the exponential growth of its strategic trajectory, from media programming to an all-inclusive citizens conversation in an expansive liberal democratic space.
“Our mass dialogue series has taken the movement to the South East, South West, South South and the North Central zones. This nationwide dialogue will continue on 20 September 2014 at Gombe for the North East zone and on 27 September 2014 in Kano for the North West zone.
“Thereafter, on 30 September 2014 at the Eagle Square Abuja TAN will hold the Grand Finale of its citizens dialogue aimed at celebrating Nigeria and its current leadership. Lai Mohammed’s primitive tantrums, schizophrenic political mindset; the type that produces a duality of irreconcilable visions, perverse sense of judgment and cess-pit narrative and discursive mode will not deter us from accomplishing our set objective.
“The rallies have come to stay and those who don’t like them just have to live with them for the sake of their sanity and move on to other, hopefully, noble political pursuits.
‘Let me state in passing that the totality of Nigeria’s post-colonial democratic infrastructure, just as in the developed liberal democracies of Europe and the USA, recognizes the legitimate existence of independent political pressure groups that are supportive of the varied political interests operating in established political geographies. It is no fault of TAN that individuals and groups sympathetic to Lai Mohammed’s political tendency are crippled by intellectual sterility and strategic imbecility as to be incapable of constructing a platform that will give TAN a run for its money, energy and efforts.
“If anything, the massive resources this tendency has somehow accumulated from its humble beginnings in 1999 are, if the truth must be told, staggering and beyond reason. Money cannot therefore be the issue, or can it?
FACT TWO: “TAN has created over 45 television jingles that have been broadcast over 4,000 times by four of Nigeria’s leading stations. And this is in addition to countless radio jingles and over 250,000 copies of its rally brochures containing pictures, facts and figures of President Jonathan’s National Transformation Agenda in living action.
“We are yet to see just one counter electronic media programming attacking our well-researched documentation of developments occurring in different national sectors in the past three and half years, or just one OP-ED refuting the veracity of our presentations.
“What is served us daily from Lai Mohammed’s Verkhovenskian imagination is the torrent of well rehearsed falsehood, empty political prattle, pompous self-enfoolment dressed up as political fact, self-righteous indignation that bothers on pious cant and excess of bellicosity demeaning of a democrat.
“As we await just one deconstructive reading of TAN by the APC we will resign ourselves, as Nigerians have already done, to Lai Mohammed’s stale mythologies of politics and power and gross ritualization of inconsequential political fables which have no bearing to truth.
FACT THREE: “Lai Mohammed and the APC have made so much noise about the sources of TAN’s financing without providing one shred of evidence to back up the torrents of abuses, insinuations, innuendoes, and outright accusations that flow steadily from their very voluble and fertile imagination.
“The fact remains that TAN has neither sought nor received a kobo from the Federal government, all its ministries, agencies or department in executing its programmes and projects. Anybody who has evidence to the contrary should present same to the public or shut up for good.
“But for those who are set on an inexorable course of political perdition through the irrational criminalization of opinions, perspectives and viewpoints that counter theirs they earn, not our condemnation nor even contempt; they earn our sympathy given the surreal cloud of ethical infamy that envelops the political spaces the dwell in.
FACT FOUR: “TAN is a proud Nigerian platform and a thousand, nay, a million hate-filled words cannot deter us from bringing democracy closer to the people through robust conversation and dialogue that increase political understanding and participation. For those who play politics with terrorism and extremist insurgencies we leave them to their conscience.
“For those who denigrate the person and office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on a daily basis, no matter the degree of divergence of political opinions and the struggle for power, we leave them in their world of political prodigality, infantile delusions and perfidious political enterprises. For those who desecrate the homestead abroad in search of vainglorious fame and the accolade of foreigners, we will not call them traitors but we know they are no patriots.
“As members of our armed forces struggle courageously to keep our land safe and free by riding it of terrorists they will constantly earn our prayers, support and encouragement. There are some in our midst who want us to live by the rules set by extremists wherever they appear; in an environment of pervasive fear, uncertainty and siege mentality.
“They will be quite happy if our national values are turned upside down, and if we cease to walk tall and proud as a free people. As serious as some of the challenges that confront us as a nation are there is so much that is good in our land. It is the goodness of Nigeria that TAN celebrates to the discomfiture of the negatively minded political nihilists in our midst who are intent on sowing chaos and disorder. To this we say a resounding no”.
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