The Peoples Democratic Party has sparked a fresh controversy online over its comment on the missing Malaysian plane.
As the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which left Kuala Lumpur on March 8 en route Beijing, China, continues, the ruling party said it was imagining a situation where the incident had happened in Nigeria.
The party said it was particularly seeking to know what would have become of President Goodluck Jonathan if the missing plane were to have been a Nigerian airliner.
Urging Nigerians to drop their comments on its official Facebook page, the party asked, “What do you think would have happened to GEJ if the Malaysian flight MH 370 that disappeared 14 days ago were to be Nigeria’s?”
However, some Nigerians have criticised the PDP for nursing such a thought at a time when international efforts for the whereabouts of the jet have been unsuccessful so far.
Many of them said they believed that the PDP made the statement with a view to whipping up public sentiments that many Nigerians, especially the opposition, would have “unfairly” criticised the President if it were an indigenous airline.
“Is Jonathan a pilot or does he operate an airline?” a curious visitor to the PDP Facebook page, Oludare Adebiyi, asked.
Again, one Mu’azu Sa’adu-Wara dared the PDP-led government to handle the affairs of the aviation industry with levity and incur the wrath of Nigerians. “Try to lose a plane and hear what Nigerians will say,” he added.
Those who dropped angry comments on the party’s Facebook page argued that its enquiry amounted to an insult on the memory of the 239 passengers and crew members aboard the plane, as well as insensitive to the feelings of distraught relations.
While Adetona Bashorun-Adeoti described the Facebook post as “completely nonsense question,” another respondent, Isa Ahmed, reacted angrily, saying, “This is a useless question from a useless party.”
Muhammad Bello-Tukur, who works with the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, Kaduna State, said he wondered if the continued wanton destruction of lives in the north eastern part of the country was not enough challenge for the PDP-led government to worry about before subtly wishing that a plane disaster befall the nation.
“Is that your deadly hope as a party that our people should be dying? What has fallen upon this useless party called PDP?” Bello-Tukur queried.
Ibrahim Suleiman-Dawud, who also decried the PDP statement, said one would have expected the party to take a more responsive approach to its social media engagement.
Suleiman-Dawud, a student, argued that the statement is too demeaning of a ruling party of PDP’s stature which proclaims itself as the largest political party in Africa.
“This stupidity of yours needs to be over. What type of question is this? Something happened outside Nigeria and you hope it to be in Nigeria. Shame on you, People Destroying Party,” he wrote.
Corroborating Suleiman-Dawud’s position, another Facebook fan of the party, Rex Igo, a logistics officer based in Abuja, branded the feedback sought by the party as “absolute nonsense.”
“It is absolute nonsense to even imagine it to happen in Nigeria. Can you, the leaders of this country, be responsible for once?” he asked on the social network.
However, though many faulted the perceived insensitivity of the PDP, others cautioned it against making such sinister wishes for the country and the citizenry.
A respondent, Suleiman Sabo, advised the PDP to dedicate its online activities to offering prayers for the good of the nation. “Pray that good things befall (sic) your President and your country. Why post this nonsense?” Sabo querried.
A student of the Niger Delta University, Okpole Brown, while faulting the party, enthused that the question it raised was inconsequential to the current realities bedeviling the country. Brown said the party, with the statement, was taking the citizenry for a ride.
He noted, “PDP is asking this question because they know Nigeria can be taken for a ride. Only in Nigeria can unemployment rate rise to 23.9 per cent and the President can still go to sleep with his two eyes closed.
“Only in Nigeria will fuel scarcity linger on for weeks and the President and the minister will tell the citizens why fuel will remain scarce without fear.
“Only in Nigeria will a minister steal public funds and still hold on tight to his or her position. PDP should cover its face in shame. Fifteen years of uninterrupted rule yet no improvement, life is unbearable, kerosene still out of reach of the poor. A revolution is close!”
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