The objectives and responsibilities of any leader apart from protecting the lives and properties of his people is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even more better. Leadership has also been described as a process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common goal.
A good leader on the other hand is one who goes first and lead by example, so that others will be motivated to follow. This is a basic requirement of any leader. To be a leader, one must have a deep-rooted commitment to the goals that he strives to achieve even if nobody
follows him.
Several statements by leaders are more often use as reference by their protégé and other followers; they are what make a dry subject more appealing to the audience and oftentimes used as abstract words by many speakers and authors in their speeches and books/articles. It has in recent times became habitual for people in need of solution to quote or make references to speeches and actions of their leaders, these quotes are usually words of wisdom extracted from various speeches/books made by a particular leader of interest, especially when confronted with issues during a sustain period particularly in communication.
A leader is expected to create an enabling operating environment where others can do and achieve great things with the desire to mentor and motivate them, because a leader is expected to be a mentor, and a guide to the less experience or less knowledgeable ones. To be a great leader, your actions must be seen as inspirations for others to dream more, your words should be as guide for others to learn more and do more in order to achieve some desired goals.
Of recent, the outgoing president of Nigeria, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, has become increasingly phonetic and more acerbic at his co-travelers and other members of his People's Democratic Party (PDP) for their poor outing that led to a historic and all-time embarrassment in the March 28, 2015 presidential polls in which they were overwhelmingly humiliated by the opposition.
President Jonathan and wife are globally known for their unguarded blunders since becoming the number one-family of this great country, their entire stay in office will be remembered for their usual voodooed struggles and outrageous defense of corruption and impunity, the president in particular will be remembered for his poor decision-making and unyielding policies especially when it comes to pressing national issues. President Jonathan's media chat through which he thought was his only channel to communicate directly with the poor masses was more-or-less a stage-managed exhibition of ignorance and heinous incompetence, all his appearance during those presidential chats were not only an insult to the office of the President but an embarrassment to the much vaunted collective intelligence of Nigerians, and also a mockery to democracy and governance in general. And to my dismay, the president seriously means whatever he says during those interviews.
Below are 10 memorable quotes from President Jonathan that will keep his name fresh in our memories after May 29:
1. After the "self-rebasing" of Nigeria's economy by the National Bureau Of Statistics which saw our economy jumped a miraculous figures of 89% overnight and looking at the fact that the Nigerian masses continue to live in squalor despite being the Africa's biggest economy, many began to doubt the authenticity of Nigeria's fast growing economy and when asked, the President wasted no time in responding with his usual contradictory response. He said: “CNN has said our Economy is growing. The best Economists are at the World Bank. Now you have all these Nigerian Economists talking nonsense. Do they know better than
CNN or World Bank?”
Now if words have meaning, President Jonathan in the above statement clearly substantiate the fact that all he relied on to showcase his achievements in office are news-headlines from CNN but nothing physical to show on ground. Interestingly, the same Jonathan was furious at CNN and the world bank when the former broke the news about the deplorable state of welfare and lack of equipments facing our soldiers at war front and when the latter revealed that over 60% of Nigerians lives on less than one-dollar per day. Didn't the World Bank and CNN know better?
2. On the lackadaisical approach to combating the satanic and bloodthirsty terrorist sect of Boko Haram, President Jonathan was trying to defend the less care attitudes exhibited by his government toward the fight against terrorism in the troubled northeast, he said: “I am treading softly on Islamic terror group Boko Haram because they are our siblings. It is extremely difficult to deal with them. You cannot mobilize the whole soldiers to go and wipe out your entire family. So, it is easier to deal with foreigners than with your brothers.” Could this be why Boko Haram comfortably unleashed mayhem on the innocent people of Nigeria without retreat for about six years of Jonathan's stewardship? Having nothing to be afraid of with their dady in Aso Rock.
3. When asked about the alleged $20billion that was not remitted to the Federation account, raised by former Central Bank Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the President was more interested in discrediting the whistleblower than to investigate the thieves surrounding him. He said: “Twenty billion dollars is a lot of money. If you steal $20 billion today, America will know. It is their money. Where will you hide the money? Even Dangote that is celebrated as the richest man in Africa today can not produce such amount of money…”
4. In June of 2012, when President Jonathan was responding to a question he was asked about public declaration of his assets; he clearly showed he doesn't have it in him, the patriotism and respect for the rule of law which every president is expected not to lack but instead, he said: “The issue of public asset declaration is a matter of personal principle. That is the way I see it, and I don’t give a damn about it, even if you criticize me from heaven. I will not declare my asset."
5. When asked to comment on a World Bank's report that more than 70% of Nigerians lives in abject poverty, President Jonathan was short of words but instead, he applied his usual tactic of meaningless response. The President was quoted as saying; “I visited Kenya recently on a state visit and there was a programme for Nigerian and Kenyan business men to interact and the number of private jets that landed in Nairobi that day was a subject of discussion in Kenyan media for over a week. If you talk about ownership of private jets, Nigeria will be among the first 10 countries, yet they are saying that Nigeria is among the five poorest countries." Did Mr. President made any sense here?
6. On the most disturbing issue in Nigeria today, corruption, President Jonathan officially endorsed embezzlement of public funds and further confirmed the fact that corruption is indeed an official policy and symbol of his administration. Jonathan, a Ph.D holder and an academician was at his best in an attempt to educate Nigerians and the world at large on the differences between "stealing and corruption" and i quote: “Over 70% of what are called corruption (cases) today, even by EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) and other anti-corruption agencies, are not corruption but common stealing. Stealing is not the same thing as corruption. If you put yam and plantain where a goat is, you can't stop that goat from eating the yam.” Here, Mr. President was trying to legalize corruption and at same time, tell the world that his goats (his cabinet members and associates) cannot be prevented from eating plantain and yam (public funds).
7. In furtherance of his outrageous defense of corruption (sorry, stealing) and his continuous opposition to the rule of law. President Jonathan while attempting to blackmail the people's general, President-elect Muhammadu Buhari, at an Enugu campaign rally in January, he was quoted as saying: How much did Jim Nwobodo steal? He only stole a small amount of money not up to the price of Peugeot car, yet BUHARI jailed him. Is that fair enough?" and the hired crowd pitifully screamed NOOO!!!. For President Jonathan's information, Jim Nwobodo stole $5.1m from the taxpayers hard-earned money in 1984 and if i am not mistaken, $5.1m as of 1984 were enough to buy a brand new helicopter or a tukumbo jet not to talk of a Peugeot car.
8. During an interactive session with Nigerians in Turkey before the 2011 general elections, President Jonathan said: "If i’m voted into power within the next four years, the issue of power will become a thing of the past. Four years is enough for anyone in power to make significant improvement and if I can’t improve on power within this period, it then means I cannot do anything even if I am there for the next four years.” Here we are, six years (not four) with Jonathan as President and I am sorry to say; not only did Jonathan failed to make any improvement in power supply but the 4,750megawatts of electricity he inherited in our national grid have reduced to a well embarrassing figures between 1,600-2,300megawatts.
9. In his sympathy message shortly after the attack on Government Comprehensive Senior Science Secondary School in Potiskum of Yobe state, which claimed the lives of no fewer than 50 school boys and hundreds sustained various degree of injuries when a suicide bomber disguised in school uniform detonated a bomb at the assembly ground while students were waiting to hear the principal's daily address at exactly 7:50am, President Jonathan said: “I assures the grieving parents and people of Yobe state that no matter how long it takes, the Federal Government will ensure that all the suicide bombers that are responsible for the senseless murder of so many promising youngsters across the country are brought to justice and made to pay for their atrocious crimes." If not lacking words to cover up his insensitivity and to pretend he's putting serious efforts to securing the lives of the citizenry, how on earth would President Jonathan promise to bring a suicide bomber who has already killed himself to justice?
10. On August 31, 2012, during a Town Hall Meeting held in the commercial city of Onitsha as part of activities marking President Jonathan's one-day visit to Anambra State, the issue of Second Niger Bridge came up during the Town Hall Meeting since Jonathan had during his campaigns for the 2011 general elections promised to construct the bridge if elected President, and the don has this to say: "When the first bridge was built, it was during the presidency of Nnamdi Azikiwe; the second Niger bridge will be built under the presidency of Azikiwe Jonathan.” "I will go on exile on the completion of my term in office if I didn't build the bridge before 2015." After four years of deceptive and empty promise and with only 12 days left to the end of Jonathan's stay in office, neither did he (President Jonathan) built the Second Niger Bridge nor did he went on exile as promised, except some three months ago when the president was seen inspecting the "Second Niger Bridge map" during his campaign trip to Anambra State, indicating that not a single block has been erected from the ground.
From the quotes above, you will agree with me that Nigerians spent the last six years in “one chance” under the watch of an incompetent president who always displays sheer arrogance and cattiness wherever he goes to represent Nigeria.
Note: all quotes in this piece were extracted directly from live interviews and speeches by President Jonathan, though some were paraphrased but if in doubt, you can easily verify them yourself easily by doing a google search.
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