‘Jonathan is the Leader Nigeria Needs Now’

President Goodluck Jonathan

By Ahamefula Ogbu

Executive Director Grassroots Initiative (GI) for Peace and Social

Orientation, Mr. Richard Akinaka,  Sunday described President

Goodluck Jonathan as a leader who possesses the leadership qualities

Nigeria needed at her present state of development and democracy.

He told THISDAY that if not for Jonathan’s listening spirit and

considerate actions, the country would have run into ugly situations

with the pressures coming from all sides, praising him for having the

qualities to steer the ship of the state thus far.

Akinaka insisted that his(Jonathan’s) administration had been the most

democratic with an above average performance in overall assessment

especially in resuscitating hitherto comatose infrastructure like

roads, power and the rehabilitation of airports across the country

which were before his intervention, “like fishing ports.

“No doubt, in my experience of governance, this is the most democratic

government we have seen so far. Society and nations can only grow on

thriving democracy where the people’s opinions count. The president

has performed above average. They are very visible, it is not a total

success though, there are failures in certain areas, but overall, he

has performed above average.

Look at the aviation sector; Nigerian airports hitherto could be

described as fishing ports, but today you can see new airports,

emerging as 21st century airports.

“There is power project everywhere around this country; there is no

state that you go and you won’t see power project going on and the

generation level has improved tremendously. You see the railway, the

last time I heard about railway was when I was a young boy, today you

have railway service all the way from Lagos to Kano. Look at our

federal roads, so like I said, there are areas, certain agencies of

government that have not done well, but overall, the Jonathan’s

administration has performed above average and needs Nigerians’

support.”

Comparing Jonathan’s administration to that of former President

Olusegun Obasanjo, the executive director of GI, said: “I believe that

God has been faithful to this country to the extent that at every

point in time, He gives this country the right leader. Baba (Obasanjo)

was the right leader for the time he became President, it was the

diciest period of this country; military government handed over to a

civilian government, and we needed a character like Obasanjo to

restructure the Nigerian army to forestall another era of military

intervention in our political life.

“Baba, with that experience, came and restructured the entire

military; so he was the leader we needed at that point in time to set

the path for pure democracy in this country. He came as a bullish

leader who will say this is what I want, stood firm and did what he

did to set the path of democracy in this country. If not for what he

did, the Yar’Adua era would have led to another era of military

government.

“Jonathan is the leader this country needs at this time having

experienced Baba’s activities as not much of a democrat to stabilise

this country. As a democrat, Jonathan will not use federal might. If

it was Obasanjo, the so called political feud between Jonathan and

Governor Chibuike Amaechi maybe would have seen Economic and Financial

Crimes Commission (EFCC) unleashed on Amaechi. Jonathan is the right

leader for this country at this time.”

On whether Jonathan should contest in 2015, he replied that he

(Jonathan) had constitutional right to run and asked those using

threat to canvass for positions from all sections of the country to

desist and rather appeal to reason and performance.

He also denied that former militant leader, Tom Ateke, was working to

destabilise Rivers State, arguing that he has a right to demand

accountability from the state government.