Dis Guy:

they are always on top of the situation!!

DTaj: Our support for the President should never have been the main pivot for this sort of discussion. Rather, we should take a dispassionate view of the propriety of his visit to Brazil.

Whether we like the President or not is irrelevant in this matter. My view is that the President was wrong to have embarked on the trip when he was well aware of the senseless killings on Sunday. The flippant press statement issued by Reuben Abati and Labaran Maku's arrogant and obviously insensitive comment after the FEC meeting of yesterday made the matter worse for the image of the President.

This was an Earth Summit (not even the UN General Assembly) that the VP and/or Minister of the Environment could have easily attended on his behalf, for the sake of humanity!

There are a legion of examples where responsible world leaders have either had to entirely cancel trips, rush back home, or send representatives to more important meetings, conferences, and other forms of official visits on account of fundamentally critical issues plaguing their citizens. Please check this inexhaustive list:

1. April 2010: President Hu Jintao of China cut short his tour of Latin America and returned home after an earthquake in Western China.

2. April 2012: President Salva Kiir of South Sudan returned home early from his visit to China, due to the tension along the border of South Sudan and Sudan border.

3. July 2011: British Prime Minister David Cameron cut short a trade tour to some African countries and returned home owing to a phone-hacking scandal (Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.).

4. June 2012: President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina cut her international trip and returned to Buenos Aires to monitor the teamster's strike. She even had to meet with her cabinet almost straight from the airport, after landing at 9:00 pm!

5. April 2012: Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu cut short an official trip to China because of Syrian border fire after Syrian forces fired shots into a refugee camp across the border wounding 4 Syrians and 2 Turkish staff at a refugee camp!

6. Sept. 2011: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani of Pakistan cancelled his official visit to the US, where he was to address the UN General Assembly to oversee flood relief operations! He rather asked the Foreign Minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, to represent him and address the entire UN Assembly!!!

7. Nov. 2011: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cancelled a 'well-prepared for' official trip to London and Istanbul to be with her ailing 92-year old mother! She was scheduled to join Presidents, Prime Ministers and other officials from 60 countries in London, along with internet pioneers Google, Facebook and Microsoft as well as Chinese technology firms, to discuss cyber security. And she cancelled this!!!

In the 7 examples I stated above, these leaders had Deputies, Military Heads, Police Heads, Ministers of Interior, Environment, Water, etc, but they decided to stay back to face their various issues at home!!!

My little piece...

nagoma: It's only when you violate natural selection that a shoeless child grows up to be crowned as the leader. Selective deprevation has some implication of reduced fitness to survive and genetic weakness. This weakness ( technically incompetence) is obscured from the favored but incompetent specie selected and transferred to the genum, the order and the phylum. A single persons genetic weakness can be transformed into severe deficiency for a nation and can make the difference between a nation's survival or it's destruction. This is just my theory.

nagoma: It's only when you violate natural selection that a shoeless child grows up to be crowned as the leader. Selective deprevation has some implication of reduced fitness to survive and genetic weakness. This weakness ( technically incompetence) is obscured from the favored but incompetent specie selected and transferred to the genum, the order and the phylum. A single persons genetic weakness can be transformed into severe deficiency for a nation and can make the difference between a nation's survival or it's destruction. This is just my theory.

aweaweawe: may dis our leaders think say we be fool,can't dy just remove this man,he sucks.
Vote 4 B.R.F as president(2015).

ifyegede: Wat is more imporatnt to a president at a time such as dis if not the safety and security of the citizens? Did he swear oath to secure lives and properties of Nigerians or did he swear an oath to attend all conferences abroad irrespective of wat is happening in his home soil? A clear case of misplaced priorities. Beaf and his ilks wud spew trash in support of him as usual.

Demdem:

Abati is very Foolish. he thinks Nigerians are fools.
It isn ta must the president has to go, a delegation can be sent on his behalf however because of the esta codes they will all receive they have refused to allow their brain to work all for their selfish interests.

H$LBroker:
If your children and wife are among those bombed, King Jona ll u have time for a conference meeting?

Evame: I PITY MY COUNTRY

DTaj: Our support for the President should never have been the main pivot for this sort of discussion. Rather, we should take a dispassionate view of the propriety of his visit to Brazil.

Whether we like the President or not is irrelevant in this matter. My view is that the President was wrong to have embarked on the trip when he was well aware of the senseless killings on Sunday. The flippant press statement issued by Reuben Abati and Labaran Maku's arrogant and obviously insensitive comment after the FEC meeting of yesterday made the matter worse for the image of the President.

This was an Earth Summit (not even the UN General Assembly) that the VP and/or Minister of the Environment could have easily attended on his behalf, for the sake of humanity!

There are a legion of examples where responsible world leaders have either had to entirely cancel trips, rush back home, or send representatives to more important meetings, conferences, and other forms of official visits on account of fundamentally critical issues plaguing their citizens. Please check this inexhaustive list:

1. April 2010: President Hu Jintao of China cut short his tour of Latin America and returned home after an earthquake in Western China.

2. April 2012: President Salva Kiir of South Sudan returned home early from his visit to China, due to the tension along the border of South Sudan and Sudan border. - we know the background to this an South Sudan was a newly formed country

3. July 2011: British Prime Minister David Cameron cut short a trade tour to some African countries and returned home owing to a phone-hacking scandal (Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.).David Cameron returned home because this scandal was about to expose his friends. We now know he was personally linked to a few people who were about to feel the heat.

4. June 2012: President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina cut her international trip and returned to Buenos Aires to monitor the teamster's strike. She even had to meet with her cabinet almost straight from the airport, after landing at 9:00 pm!

5. April 2012: Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu cut short an official trip to China because of Syrian border fire after Syrian forces fired shots into a refugee camp across the border wounding 4 Syrians and 2 Turkish staff at a refugee camp!

6. Sept. 2011: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani of Pakistan cancelled his official visit to the US, where he was to address the UN General Assembly to oversee flood relief operations! He rather asked the Foreign Minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, to represent him and address the entire UN Assembly!!! - Can I ask what the reason for this was?

7. Nov. 2011: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cancelled a 'well-prepared for' official trip to London and Istanbul to be with her ailing 92-year old mother! She was scheduled to join Presidents, Prime Ministers and other officials from 60 countries in London, along with internet pioneers Google, Facebook and Microsoft as well as Chinese technology firms, to discuss cyber security. And she cancelled this!!! - This was for personal reasons and not because of anything to do with the US, in fact she obviously put her personal needs above that of the US (understandably)

In the 7 examples I stated above, these leaders had Deputies, Military Heads, Police Heads, Ministers of Interior, Environment, Water, etc, but they decided to stay back to face their various issues at home!!!

My little piece...

shymmex:

WTF is global warming?

Another fraud to rip people off.. If they care about global warming that much, they would have stopped gas flaring...

How old are you again?? You sound like my 12years old sister.

Mandelaguy: @ sisi- kill. Once again, you have demonstrated your profound ignorance of governance, international relations and gas flaring. It's rather pitiable that you chose such a public platform as Nairaland to show it. In governance, you don't play into the hands of your enemies by doing their biddings. Those who went to throw bombs at innocent xtain worshippers in Zaria sought to destabilize this govt and you don't help them actualise it by staying away from such a global summit. Doesn't it occur to your narrow mind that these detractors would have been happier if Gej missed the summit on account of these politically motivated attacks. They would have still turned around to castigate the President for being unable to attend such a summit because of Boko Haram. The question is, what extra security measure does Gej need to take that must require his physical presence? This argument for his presence would have been tenable, if it was in the 60's when information communication Technology had not really reached an advanced stage. President Obama was in the White house and was co ordinating the attack on Osama Bin Laden at Pakistan. These days, one can even hve meetings thru Skype. So why would Gej stay put in Aso rock and fail to honour a commitment he made months back to attend the summit? Have you really considered the consequences of his absence on our international relations? You even went as far as attacking the President for gas flaring as if it started today. And you may not want to knw that govt has taken all forms of sanctions against gas flaring including imposing heavy taxes and giving them a deadline upon which they are to lay proper infrastructure for the utilization of gas flaring. Maybe in your shallow mind, Gas flaring is something that you can just extinguish overnight by erecting chimneys.

While Hollande, Russian leader Vladimir Putin and China's Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao are among more than 100 leaders expected in Rio, there are high-level absentees: U.S. President Barack Obama, Britain's David Cameron and German leader Angela Merkel are all no-shows, adding to a subdued atmosphere that the action taken in Rio isn't getting the global spotlight.

http://www.thereporter.com/news/ci_20906303/u-n-environmental-summit-rio-20-kicks-off

As Europe’s debt crisis rages, with the focus turning to parliamentary elections today in Greece, many world leaders are skipping the Rio+20 environmental conference that’s being billed as the biggest gathering in the UN’s history, drawing more than 50,000 delegates.

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde, U.S. President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and UK Prime Minister David Cameron are among those who are skipping the Rio summit even after Brazil changed the conference dates to coincide with the end of Group of 20 leaders’ summit all are attending this week in Mexico.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-17/brazil-gives-poor-countries-free-ride-to-rio-climate-conference.html

OAM4J: President Goodluck Jonathan Wednesday responded to strident criticisms from Nigerians over his decision to travel to Brasil while crises were raging on in Yobe and Kaduna states saying that he did not abandoned his responsibility.

The decision by president Jonathan to travel to Brasil while churches were being bombed in Kaduna state has attracted criticism from a cross section of Nigerians with the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria accusing him of insensitivity.

[b]But in a statement issued from Brazil, the Special Adviser to the President on Communications, Reuben Abati said before leaving for the United Nation’s Earth Summit Rio+20 in Brazil, the president met with security chiefs and he was confident that security agencies were on top of the situation before his departure Tuesday.

Brazilian natives dance during the People's Summit in Rio de Janeiro, on June 19, 2012, (Inset) President Jonathan

According to Dr. Abati, the president needed to attend the conference because of its importance to Nigeria and because commitments had already been made on his attendance.

The Special Adviser noted that “The conference, Rio+20, is very important and nobody can doubt that.

The issues that will be discussed at this conference are also issues that are relevant to Nigeria’s interest. It is also an opportunity for Nigeria to promote its interest in terms of its place in global community.

“The crisis in Kaduna and Yobe occurred almost on the eve of the President’s departure for this event and commitments have been made.

“In any event, it is not as if government has abandoned the situation at home. Security agencies are there, they are on top of the situation.

“Before the President left, he met with security chiefs. The business of leadership cannot just stop because there is a crisis there.[/b]

“I think what we can do is to appeal to the opposition not to always play politics with everything; that is the major challenge we face, people always want to play politics with everything.

“If the President had refused to come to Rio, the same persons will turn around and say that there is an important conference attended by world leaders and the Nigerian President stayed away from it.

“It is as if there is nothing you can do to please our people. It is not that Nigeria is going to lose anything by Mr. President’s presence here rather, the country is going to gain a lot from his presence here.

“He is here serving the interest of Nigerians, it is not as if he has abandoned his responsibilities” he pointed out.


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/06/i-did-not-abandon-my-responsibility-jonathan-speaks/

obedoracoid: we all know that there are detractors to GEJ's administration. We should shun sentiments. The boko haram menance shldnt stop d country from moving forward. These perpetrators are our brothers and are living amongst us, we shld report them if we want peace. Govt cannot do magic. I applaud GEJ for his travel, security operatives are on top if and only if we d citizenry ll co-operate with them. The situation shld be everybody's concern if we want peace lest the oppositions who ve caved their niche in hullabaloo criticisms and ve vowed to tople GEJ's govt deceive and take hold on d populace.

H$LBroker:
If your children and wife are among those bombed, King Jona ll u have time for a conference meeting?

nagoma: It's only when you violate natural selection that a shoeless child grows up to be crowned as the leader. Selective deprevation has some implication of reduced fitness to survive and genetic weakness. This weakness ( technically incompetence) is obscured from the favored but incompetent specie, can be selected and transferred to the genum, the order and the phylum. A single persons genetic weakness can be transformed into severe deficiency for a nation and can make the difference between a nation's survival or it's destruction. This is just my theory.

aweaweawe: may dis our leaders think say we be fool,can't dy just remove this man,he sucks.
Vote 4 B.R.F as president(2015).

Mandelaguy: @ sisi- kill. Once again, you have demonstrated your profound ignorance of governance, international relations and gas flaring. It's rather pitiable that you chose such a public platform as Nairaland to show it. In governance, you don't play into the hands of your enemies by doing their biddings. Those who went to throw bombs at innocent xtain worshippers in Zaria sought to destabilize this govt and you don't help them actualise it by staying away from such a global summit. Doesn't it occur to your narrow mind that these detractors would have been happier if Gej missed the summit on account of these politically motivated attacks. They would have still turned around to castigate the President for being unable to attend such a summit because of Boko Haram. The question is, what extra security measure does Gej need to take that must require his physical presence? This argument for his presence would have been tenable, if it was in the 60's when information communication Technology had not really reached an advanced stage. President Obama was in the White house and was co ordinating the attack on Osama Bin Laden at Pakistan. These days, one can even hve meetings thru Skype. So why would Gej stay put in Aso rock and fail to honour a commitment he made months back to attend the summit? Have you really considered the consequences of his absence on our international relations? You even went as far as attacking the President for gas flaring as if it started today. And you may not want to knw that govt has taken all forms of sanctions against gas flaring including imposing heavy taxes and giving them a deadline upon which they are to lay proper infrastructure for the utilization of gas flaring. Maybe in your shallow mind, Gas flaring is something that you can just extinguish overnight by erecting chimneys.