When you elevate a child to a position far above his
capacity, the first thing he does is to reduce it to his
level, and thereafter make a constant mess of what
is left of it. We saw within the week how Nigeria’s
presidency was diminished by a man whose
psychological qualification for the office has
remained subject to critical questioning from day
one. The cathedral image of the presidency was
whittled down to fit into the narrow mind of the man
who occupies it. The president of the Federal
Republic Of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, solicited a
gift from an Italian construction company, Gitto
Construzioni Generali Nigeria Ltd. The gift came in
the form of a church built for the president in his
small village of Otuoke. He had complained that the
church in his village was unbefitting of a president’s
village. And the company seized the moment to
curry the his favour.
This, to be clear, goes beyond its legality or
otherwise. This amplifies the character of the
president, and, for me, his depth of appreciation of
the office he occupies.
But first the legality of such a conduct. Section 6 of
the Code of Conduct for Public Officers, in the First
Schedule of the 1999 Constitution, states in clear
terms; “ …the receipt by a public officer of any
gifts or benefits from commercial firms,
business enterprises or persons who have
contracts with the government shall be
presumed to have been received in
contravention of the law” . Mr Jonathan has
contravened the law!
Now the argument from the president’s handlers is
that the church was built for the entire village
residents, not just the president and his family. But
that is an invalid argument considering that the
church was built after the president personally
expressed his desire to see a church befitting of a
president’s village. The president asked for it, and
he was given. If the request had been for the cost of
the church to be paid directly into his personal
account, it would have been granted.
The question isn’t about those for whom the church
was built. The question is about the purpose for
which the donors made the donation. In fact, the
chief beneficiary is President Jonathan himself. The
villagers didn’t complain. Their primary challenge as
citizens of Nigeria isn’t to have a big church. They
have more pressing needs to contend with. The
president voiced out his need, and those who seek
the president’s favour rose to the challenge. They
built the church to compromise the president who,
as it were, implicitly expressed his willingness to be
compromised. The intent is clear. No lawyer needs
to scratch beyond the surface to convince an upright
jury that an offence has been committed. This is a
case of contravention of the code of conduct for
public officers.
I have not hidden my concern for President
Jonathan’s penchant for not appreciating how big his
office is. Apart from his knowledge of the amount of
money he can amass from false and unrealistic
budgets, as well as the retinue of sycophants at his
beck and call, the president doesn’t know what he
represents. Great leaders know that any position of
leadership effectively denies “their people” the
opportunity of being treated special. The moment
Goodluck Jonathan became Nigeria’s president, he
ceased being an Ijaw leader or Otuoke development
crusader. His constituency is wherever the Nigerian
borders end and those who make up his people have
increased from his family and state to every nook
and crany of Nigeria. Merely professing this will not
do; acting it, and being seen to act it, is the
leadership we seek.
So why doesn’t the president know this? Being in public office is not
for everybody. There must be a certain level of grooming, earlier-on in
life, for whoever wants to be a public servant. The mindset of
leadership is cultivated over time. The president doesn’t have this
mindset. This is why he could only feel embarrassed about the poor
church structure in his village but not bothered about the thousands
who live in round huts in Benue, Kogi, Nasarrawa, Taraba and other
states in the North and Middle Belt in 21st Century Nigeria. He is
concerned about the local church in his village, but not bothered that
thousands of Nigerians float on water in a place called Makoko in
Lagos. The president doesn’t feel embarrassed that in every local
government in Nigeria’s South East are many families whose hearts
leap each time it starts raining because the thatch roofs under which
they live leak. The president isn’t aware, that somewhere outside his
Otuoke village, in the same Bayelsa state, people still live under
thatch roofs. Bad enough, that’s the state Mr Jonathan ruled as a
governor for two years. It takes grooming to be a great leader. We
don’t have such a figure in Aso Rock.
It should worry every one of us that we have a president whose
approach to governance speaks of gargantuan pettiness. The president
is even feigning ignorance of the weight of the offence he committed.
That, again, amplifies the perception many have of him as lacking in
clues as far as governance is concerned.
Societies with functional legislature would have immediately
commenced impeachment proceedings on the president for bringing
that office to disrepute. But that’s for such societies. What we have
here is almost the state of nature where entropy is the rule, and
insanity makes for orderliness.
Ours is the caricature of a working society, with all of its systems
designed to remain perpetually non-functional by those whose only
chance at relevance and survival is guaranteed by disorder.
It is such disorder that threw up a Jonathan as political figure and
crowned him the president of Africa’s most populous nation. That
disorder it is that has given Mr Jonathan the leeway to want to defend
this act that highlights him as a president who abused office, rather
than quickly dropping his resignation letter to clear way for proper, and
uninterrupted, investigation into this misdemeanor.
It is this disorder that we will live with for as long as we ignorantly
choose to wait before collectively rising up to establish our relevance
as the true owners of the land.

ekekeee.com/index.php?p=1323&wpmp_tp=0

Chinedu Ekeke should please shut it! We get the leader we deserve so why complain?!
This is very annoying . . . Make I hear anyone complain again . . .

lol see how jason dey vex wetin do you

I love this:

When you elevate a child to a position far above his
capacity, the first thing he does is to reduce it to his
level, and thereafter make a constant mess of what
is left of it.

Very succinctly apt. Precisely what GEJ has been doing. Reducing the Presidency to his childishly mediocre level.

jason123: Chinedu Ekeke should please shut it! We get the leader we deserve so why complain?!
This is very annoying . . . Make I hear anyone complain again . . .

each time i read your post, you don't fail to amuse me. are you sure you read the post very well to see that the writer said it all and you are there attacking him.Obviously you are the bigger creek fool

^^^
No, I didn't. Moro.n! Please go look for them Biafra threads to jerk off on abeg!

I am quite surprised someone disagreed with the OP.
To me he made perfect sense. I believe everyone with some iota of reasoning should condemn what Jonathan represents right now. As young people with education, we should live above the pettiness of tribalism & corruption that rules the Nigerian nation for now and condemn that which is evil wherever we find it.

you still talking about gej?

@ article.

I concur.

Why does NL promote the rantings of these clowns? Let's see, how many elections have we had in the last few months? 5,6,7? How many has the PDP lost? That's right none. Now outside a place like NL where vampires and blood suckers openly gather, opponents are worried. A party and leader storming to victory after victory. I am sure that in your rational moments you do understand what these victories mean.
So by all means celebrate the rantings of a paid Ibo man ( surely you know that there must be a financial reward for an Ibo man to publish such a document). However none of you haters really matter 'cos this is what happens - you hate , we win elections. You hate some more, we win even more. Among sane rational people there would have been a pause to reflect and ask "why are we so out of touch" but hey this is NL. Everyone else is wrong and the 100k of you are right.