President Goodluck Jonathan said yesterday that he was under tremendous pressure by lobbyists seeking to influence his choice of ministers that will serve under his new cabinet.

The president stated that a greater percentage of those lobbying – mainly politicians – do not have the interest of the country at heart.

Jonathan, who stated this at the 2011 presidential inauguration lecture with the theme “A Transformation Agenda for Accelerating National Development” delivered by Prof. Ladipo Adamolekun, assured that he was committed to transforming Nigeria.

He also observed that the major challenge of the nation’s development and transformation was her leaders, while stating that “many of the leaders we have are those who shot, rigged, influenced and manipulated their way to power without national interest but the personal interest of fielding either their wives, sisters and brothers or other family members without integrity and credibility.

“So far, only about 10 per cent of those l have seen are sincere and are of integrity, having the interest of the nation at heart, going by those who they are lobbying for, armed with the conviction and track record of their candidate’s antecedents, while over 80 per cent are based on sentiment”.

The president said that the transformation which the nation seeks cannot happen through sentiment, adding that there were two categories of leaders. Those elected, according to him, are the president, the governors, National Assembly members, local government chairmen and councillors while the next categories are the ministers and other appointed aides.

Jonathan said: “How leaders emerge is very critical if we must experience transformation in the nation. People should be allowed to choose who they want to lead them, which gives the electorate the power to demand accountability from the elected officers and the ability to remove them from office if the need arises.

“Other categories of leaders are those appointed but these set must be credible, well qualified for the position of which they are appointed into. Their appointment should not be based on sentiment but the interest of the nation.”

Jonathan said that “tenure of leaders also affects transformation, governance and quality of leadership. Elected and appointed leaders should be able to stay long in office as stipulated in the constitution as to be able to deliver on the mandate of their office”.

Speaking on the issue of electoral credibility especially as it concerns the 2011 elections, the president stated that he knew that the only way to get it right was by appointing a credible umpire, stressing that he did it by appointing Prof. Attahiru Jega.

“l was committed to conducting a credible, free and fair election as a sitting president with nothing to lose because, whether l lost or won, l would be making a name for myself. It will be observed that litigations arising from the 2011 elections have been reduced by 80 per cent, which l strongly believe will drop by 90 per cent by 2015”.

jumobi1:

Source Pls

Odunnu:

Being underpressure is an understatement, we know and are praying for you to apply wisdom in your choices. We are behind you.
Dont mind the likes of Rhino and Eziachi, they are always angry and bitter. 

Ibime:

Eziachi,

Kedu your Edgeware clan? Your third niece should be dropping a parcel soonest, whilst Ari would be made Cardinal soon if he continues his current rate of involvement in the Catholic church.

Ibime:

If GEJ doesn't pass this test (ministerial selection), his whole tenure would be a write off.

Let's see how many debts GEJ owes.

Ibime:

I was asking after your relatives, Achikes clan.

jmaine:

The president carried out a S.W.O.T analysis of a situation and the best people could come up with are undue and hilarious antagonistic posts . . . . it's a beauty he is abreast with the situation and you can only tackle a problem properly when you can identify and quantify it . . So why all this aimless posts, and please you all have the next four years to either work or criticize constructively . .lest you die while hating due to unnecessary high BP   

manny4life:


SWOT Analysis? What has SWOT Analysis got to do with this? No offense but that caught me off guard because if u knew in depth of what SWOT is, u will agree with me that it's somewhat irrelevant to the issue at hand.

Mr. President be cautious in your choosing and be prudent in your dealings.

Your were correct when you spoke about the depth of a SWOT, but let's forget about being very dogmatic . . . . a SWOT in a lay man terms is simply an appraisal system used in a decision making process to achieve certain objectives. IMO, what the man did was assess the peculiar situation he is in and has identified what needs to be done and strengthened . . . maybe the word evaluate would have been more appropriate . . . my bad . . .

But it baffles me when people keep talking about weakness being a huge factor . .they seem to forget the fact that this Nation is where it is today because the so called strong have been holding sway for a long time often been recycled . . . What we need are people who are capable and are willing to serve the nation get into political positions,then the law strengthened to acts as checks for defaulting individuals . . then every other things follows suit . .

Until we see his list, then it is very premature for people to start making assumptions based on their prejudiced mindset

BTW, the embolden part in your post reflects a good mindset irrespective of your stand pre- election period . .

Rhino.5dm:

The likes of Rhino are always bittered because things are not moving the way they are supposed.

They are very bitter and angry that another 4 years is about to be wasted due to total ignorance and sentiments.

They are very angry because of the person piloting the affairs of this nation does not have a clue on how to navigate the country through storms or rain and hence they are not ruling out the possibility of crashing or mid air explosion.

They are angry due to constant noise generated by generators within the neighbourhood and the total darkness the country is subjected to by criminality of PDP.

The likes of Rhino can NEVER be happy until things started changing in reality NOT on the pages of news papers. Sure the likes of Rhino wanted to be happy if possible.

QualityShare:

All GEJ haters, please go hug wet transformer