The best thing about President Goodluck Jonathan’s media chat on Sunday was that it clearly alerted Nigerians not to ever expect a hands-on leadership under his Presidency. Presented one more time with an opportunity to demonstrate statesmanship before distraught Nigerians, Jonathan made a royal hash of it. Rather than use the Presidential Media Chat – broadcast live on radio and television – to reassure a nation reeling from the kidnap of 276 teenage girls, corruption and sundry adversities, the President came across as wimpy at a time the country needed firm and purposeful leadership. A country that is home to the world’s largest number of Black people should not appear so rudderless.
Watching Jonathan explain issues was disturbing on several levels. For many Nigerians and the international community, the chat was expected to provide a platform for the President to reassure the parents of the missing girls – captured at Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, by Islamist terrorists three weeks ago – that the security forces were close to rescuing them.
















