A Chieftain of the Labour Party and a Nollywood actor, Kenneth Okonkwo, has said there is nothing wrong in seeing the President whenever there is a call to do so.
Okonkwo stated this while reacting to a recent photo of one of the political aides to the 2023 Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, Daniel Bwala, at the state house in Abuja.
Bwala had posted a photo and video of himself and President Bola Tinubu, on his Twitter handle on Wednesday, at the presidential villa, in Abuja.
The PDP Chieftain who is a critic of Tinubu however captioned the photo with: “Today I was delighted to meet @officialABAT, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, (GCFR) in the Villa to show appreciation and support for the bold decisions he is taking to deal with the crisis confronting our dear country.”
Reacting to the development on a Channel Channels Television’s programme with Chamberlain Usoh, Okonkwo said anybody who receives a call to see the president, must obey, as a sign of regard to the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces.
According to him, the President has the right and power to command who sees him, but he does not have the power to control what the person says.
He said, ” You know in Nigeria, after seeing that picture, I think everybody is a suspect, including me.
“Is just that I have not had enough evidence to convince myself.
“You know there is nothing wrong in seeing the President. You don’t say no to a President.
“But there is something wrong when you sycophantically make the 360° of all the principles you say you hold dear. What has changed?
“That the President is the Commander of the Armed Forces, he has the right to command me to come and see him. I will not have a choice in it, but I will have a choice in what I would say. I have a choice to my perineum when I have finished seeing him. What he cannot command is what I will say.
“But if he says I must see him, I have to see him because he is in charge of the security of myself, including me. You must respect the office of the President.
“From where I come from, there is an adage, “When you are given a message to go and deliver to the king, you can deliver it, but when you are told to go and carry the king, you cannot go to carry the king. It is really pathetic.”
