[b][/b]Presidential slow motion
By Hardball-The Nation

If  President Goodluck Jonathan had known how deeply ironical and revealing of his personality his statement at the First Baptist Church, Garki, Abuja, would be, he would have been more careful in choosing his words. He had gone to the church for the New Year’s service and had, as usual, been offered the chance to say a few words to the congregation. Never in want of something dramatic to say, Jonathan suggested that his slow approach to taking decisions was more a deliberate thing to avoid taking wrong decisions than a reflection of any inherent fault in his psychology. Said he: “When I’m challenged, I think more. I don’t rush to take decisions. I listen more to people; that is why it looks as if I’m slow. I also know that when people rush to take decisions, they also make a lot of mistakes.”
The president was apparently trying to justify why it took him so long in taking a decision to impose a state of emergency in some areas of the four northern states of Niger, Borno, Yobe and Plateau. It is not clear whether the statement also referred to his decision on fuel subsidy removal, which many people thought was too hasty in view of the fact that he said he was still consulting. It is true his decision on state of emergency came alarmingly late, but no one, except perhaps himself, is sure the late decision was a product of slow reflection or of stumbling into an understanding that comes after all other options had been deployed without success.
Even then, we must take the president’s statements with a pinch of salt. He says when he is challenged he thinks more. Now, where on earth did he get that impression from? There is nothing in his antecedents, nothing in his policies, nothing he has said or done on the key issues challenging the stability and growth of Nigeria and its democratic experience to show that his response to challenges is more thinking. If he had offered us a few examples, we would have delightfully considered them and perhaps come to the same conclusion he felt was reasoned. In fact, whether on that same Boko Haram issue, or on fuel subsidy, or on Nigeria’s political evolution, or on the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary, we find nothing to substantiate his assertion that he reasoned more when challenged.
Jonathan also asserts that he listens more to people. This is spuriousness taken too far. If he listened to people as he claimed, his decision on fuel subsidy would have shown it. If indeed he listens, then he is apparently inattentive, and he probably confuses listening with attentiveness. He also says that his late decisions make him look as if he is slow. The truth is that he doesn’t just look like he is slow; he is indeed slow. But if he is slow and he ends up taking the right decisions, we would become accustomed to his speed, as undesirable as it might be, and rejoice that his painstakingness is at least bearing fruit.
But by far the most untruthful of his assertions is the one that equates fast decisions with lots of mistakes. There is nothing anywhere in the humanities or in the social sciences that establishes an inverse relationship between fast decisions and more mistakes. Absolutely nothing. Had he done his famously slow reflection on the topic, he would have known there is no link between the two. He is welcome to his slow decisions, but let him at least not buffet us with his furious mistakes. Since he thinks more when challenged, we throw him the challenge to think fast. Perhaps, for a change, that would see him making better decisions.

Quote:
“When I’m challenged, I think more. I don’t rush to take decisions. I listen more to people; that is why it looks as if I’m slow. I also know that when people rush to take decisions, they also make a lot of mistakes.”

When all you listen to are syncophants then you might as well make you decisions fast because that way you find out more quickly that all you 've got are self-serving people surrounding the throne. They are the kind of people that have no guts to challenge what you say, and they will allow their king to go to the marketplace knowing fully well he is wearing no clothes.

Good leaders seek out those who disagree with their views if they really don't want to make mistakes - they don't practice cronism.