Abimbola Adelakun and other Nigerian commentators have written off President Goodluck Jonathan’s CNN interview as a huge national embarrassment. I would not say I enjoyed the interview myself.

I agree with Abimbola that a trace of lingering colonial mentality and some warped sense of respect, even reverence for the Oyinbo by Nigerians and Africans are part of the reason why Western journalists can write and project just about any rubbish about Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa

However, African journalists, commentators and intellectuals are also part of the problem. We write and talk about our leaders in a way that reduces them to mere rags. How many American journalists write about President Barack Obama’s person and performance the way Nigerian journalists and intellectuals talk about Jonathan or any other Nigerian president for that matter? Did any Nigerian read or hear how the American press celebrated Obama’s physical cuteness during the recent presidential inauguration? Did we see how the US media hailed Michelle Obama’s elegance? I have yet to see a Nigerian writer who celebrates the dress sense of a Nigerian president. In Nigeria, the independent press sees only the minuses of the First Lady.

I have interacted with many Western journalists over the years and I can say it straight that much of what they know and say about Africa comes from what they are fed with by Africans themselves. Even at big conferences and seminars in the United States and Europe which are mostly attended by the Oyinbo people, you would be shocked to hear how Nigerians reduce their country to a mere rubbish heap.

I was at an international conference years back and was appalled as a Nigerian vehemently maintained that money allocated to Nigeria by the World Health Organisation for the eradication of malaria usually ended up being embezzled by successive heads of state. A director of the WHO, who was definitely not from a sub-Saharan African country, had a hectic time trying to convince my compatriot that the organisation had no record of that kind of claim. Indeed, the director said Nigeria was one of the countries the WHO had endorsed as performing well in the effort to put malaria in check. I cannot forget the concluding remarks of that foreigner on that open international stage: “Nigeria is a country where anybody says anything about their head of state… (let me cut off the rest of what he said for fear of sounding like a government apologist).

Many Western journalists and commentators merely update or flesh-up what is projected about our people and our country by our people. The Western journalist loves stereotypes on Africa but they do not necessarily create all the stereotypes. Christiane Amanpour of Iranian origins obviously played the Amazon of CNN journalism as she bullied and rattled a Nigerian President. Her questions however were sickeningly cheap, stereotypic and a mere rehash of the “Nigeria is a terribly corrupt country” motif. She sought to provide entertainment for CNN viewers with a masque-like “Here comes a Nigerian President” interview where she, herself, played Queen. Little wonder, an interview where the President of one of the first 10 most populated countries of the world says the nation’s electricity problem will have been greatly solved by the end of 2013, ends with a musical video clip which ridiculously betrays what Amanpour had in mind in the first place.

Back to my sister, Abimbola Adelakun’s comment in The PUNCH. She says, “Jonathan was inappropriately dressed for the weather”. By what and whose standards if one may ask? He could jolly well have dressed like a Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh for all anybody should care. That the President said “…the bulb will light” is not a linguistic failing. Indeed, that was linguistic ingenuity and creativity, more so in today’s world where the social media is re-inventing the English language. English is growing and expanding every minute. Not only that, everyone knows, and it has been long accepted, that people must speak the English that suits their environmental and cultural realities.

It is a major failing of judgment to conclude that President Jonathan should cease from granting interviews to the international media and that he should “keep the shame at home”. The President does not speak English as a first language and he has never pretended to be an English language guru. Most presidents around the world do not speak English. How fluent is the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon, in the use of English? Does Queen Elizabeth II of England speak a word of Ijaw?

What I find tragically missing in the Nigerian press criticism is the near total absence of the President’s message in that interview. The President said that by the end of 2013, there will be major improvements in electric power supply. Indeed, since last year, improvements in electric power supply have manifested in many parts of Nigeria. Why is nobody talking about this?

The President also talked about his government’s commitment to fixing physical infrastructure which has suffered decay for years. Indeed, for decades, rail transport in Nigeria had been in a state of total collapse. Today, trains are once again snaking through the rail lines from Lagos to Kano. Why is nobody talking about it?

In lashing out at the President, everyone appears to care about the maid who brought the calabash of drinking water. The terrible issue of thirst and the fact that someone brought water to quench it appear to have been forgotten.

Terrible failings and shortcomings there are at all levels of governance in Nigeria. Is there corruption in Nigeria? Yes and yes and yes. Is corruption evil? Terribly so. Does the Jonathan administration have its own weaknesses? There are lots of them.

However, President Goodluck Jonathan appears to be making some well-directed effort towards solving some of the major challenges we have as a nation. If for the first time, a Nigerian President says he is working on the country’s age-long electricity problem, and Nigerians are seeing results, there is no reason why he should not be encouraged. If in Jonathan’s tenure, the trains have begun to run again, the Nigerian press, commentators and intellectuals should tell it to the world the same way as the President suffers tongue-lashing when he goofs.

In a developing country like Nigeria which is part of what, the West chooses to call, the Third World, who says the role of journalism is merely to flog those in government? Journalism must educate the people. It must interpret issues and developments to them. It must show the way to those who govern but it must also encourage development and good progress.

•Chief Omuabor, a writer, wrote in from Lagos via victoromuabor@yahoo.com

Well Spoken. Nigerians do not seem to have the ability to look past appearances. I watched the interview and i was proud of my president simply because he is my president. I listened to what he said and I heard. Everybody seems so hung up on his appearance, and composure. And the meat of the matter, nobody even cared to analyse. I am truly disappointed in the reactions to the interview.

Performance has nowhere to hide. I have interacted with Africans from different countries and the sentiments about their governments is usually the same: A thumbs down. The only exception in my experience is Botswana, and guess what? the government there is performing. What do you want? For people to praise mediocrity? The only way the president can shut his critics up is by performing (beyond expectation) on the job. A good example is Stephen Keshi. He was maligned and written off, but now everyone is singing his praises and dissecting his style of leadership as if they were not the same people that wrote him off before. These western

Journalists of the stature of Amanpour and Fareed Zakaria have seen nations like UAE, Singapore and China develop at rapid rates from 3rd worl to 1st world within 20 years. You cannot impress them with snail pace improvements. That is the fact. GEJ can boast of being better than OBJ or IBB...Local champions who are fighting over who scored 35th or 34th in class. Whether GEJ likes it or not, on the global stage he is being compared with the Mandelas, Mahatir Mohammeds, and Lula da Silvas. When you look at it from that perspective, you will understand the dismissive attitude he got from Amanpour after a couple of questions.

Bludeville: Well Spoken. Nigerians do not seem to have the ability to look past appearances. I watched the interview and i was proud of my president [size=14pt]simply because[/size] he is my president. I listened to what he said and I heard. Everybody seems so hung up on his appearance, and composure. And the meat of the matter, nobody even cared to analyse. I am truly disappointed in the reactions to the interview.

nobody cared? the meat of the matter..electricity, corruption, unemployment....