Politicians split over Jonathan's criticisms

BY SONI DANIEL
ABUJA— President Goodluck Jonathan’s admission that he is the most criticised President in the world, has drawn mixed reactions from the political class, which has been split on the issue.

Jonathan had at the opening of the 52nd Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, in Abuja, lamented that he was the most criticised president in the world, thereby throwing up sharp disagreement among politicians.

President Jonathan

While some politicians have asked President Jonathan to take the avalanche of criticism in good faith and use it to shame his critics, others have accused him of being the architect of his own misfortune.

Chairman of Senate Services Committee, Senator Suleiman Adokwe, noted that while there was nothing wrong with criticism, many Nigerians have taken it as a point of duty to chastise the President unduly.

Adokwe, a People’s Democratic Party, PDP, lawmaker, who represents Nasarawa South Senatorial District, pointed out that though most of the criticisms against the administration were borne out of bias, others were the honest expressions of patriotic Nigerians, who meant well for the government.

While urging Jonathan to ignore the antics of those who are out to pull down the administration, Adokwe pleaded with him to sift any grain of wisdom that might be found in the analyses of well-meaning Nigerians to move the nation forward.

The lawmaker expressed regret that most Nigerians were castigating the administration out of sheer primordial sentiments at a time the nation needed sound advice and moral support from all to make progress.

Adokwe said learning from the issues for which he has been routinely vilified by critics, President Jonathan could turn around the fortunes of Nigerians and easily put his enemies to shame in no distant time.

He said, “First of all, let me appeal to the President to take the criticism in good faith. If his administration is the most criticised it also means that he has been the most tolerant of the people.

“He (Mr. President) should not be afraid of criticism. Those are the things that will make him stronger and better. At the end of the day, where he needs to call off the bluff he should. Where there is need to get better advice to move ahead he should do so.

“As far as I know, there are some honest and patriotic Nigerians who really wish the president well and they may air their views so that he can use such criticism to move the country forward. There are others who simply criticise in order to be noticed while others criticise solely to bring down the government in the name of opposition.

However, the spokesman for the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, described the admission by Jonathan that he was the most criticised President as the lamentation of a leader who has not done enough to elicit the accolades of the citizens.

Fashakin said Jonathan deserved the criticisms leveled against him and his administration because there was nothing to show for the promises, which he made to Nigerians while campaigning for the office.

“President Goodluck Jonathan has not given Nigerians what he promised them. How can such a president not be criticised?” he asked, adding, “the management of any entity is never a business of excuses and but based on specifics”.

“The issue of being criticised does not arise. Nigerians have the rights to demand that their expectations by met by a government that promised transformation agenda during the election but now sleep with one eye open and corruption taken to an unprecedented level by the administration.

However, the Political Adviser to the President, Alhaji Ahmed Gulak, described some of the critics of his boss as people who had taken it upon themselves to just attack the man because they were no longer in commanding positions in the government.

Gulak said it was wrong for some Nigerians to rubbish the good work the administration was doing just because they were no longer in the government.

“It is a very big shame the rate at which people who fail to get what they want from government, try to pull it down.

“That attitude cannot take this country to anywhere. It is a sordid situation indeed,” he said.

However a former Commissioner in Rivers State, Mr. Mela Ofobirika, described the criticism of the President as an opportunity for him to get undiluted information from Nigerians on how to move the government forward.

Ofobirika, an expert in oil and gas law, pointed out that it was only through such means that Mr. President could learn from what Nigerians were saying and use their inputs to his administration’s advantage.

“To me, I think Jonathan should count himself lucky to be criticised by Nigerians. If they do not criticise him it means that they are not interested in what he is doing and that would not augur well for him and the nation.

“Let him take the criticism as advice and continue to open the political space for Nigerians to relate freely with him. I think he will be the greatest at the end of the day,” the politician added.

The spokesman for the Arewa Consultative Forum, Anthony Sani, advised the President not to be bothered by critics but to focus on the development of the nation so as to justify his mandate by Nigerians.

Sani said, “If Jonathan is the most criticised President today and he ends up as the best Nigerian President, he would have written his name in gold.

“That is why it does not matter to me how many people are criticising him and how often they do so. If the criticism will make him the best, so be it,” Sani stated.