Ghanaian Prof. Slams Jonathan

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A Ghanaian-born Economic Professor and President of the Washington DC-based Free Africa Foundation, George Ayittey, has slammed President Goodluck Jonathan over his answers to questions posed by journalists during the media chat he held with them on Sunday, saying he has portrayed himself as a joke to the world.

The Professor, who decried the fate that Nigerians would have to bear till the expiration of the President’s tenure on his Twitter handle, declared: “Look, this GEJ guy is a joke–a meretricious mediocrity. Nigerians deserve a better leader.”

Describing President Jonathan’s defence for refusing to visit Borno State, because the airport there was not functional at the time he planned to visit and that he did not want to fly a helicopter ‘for obvious reasons,’ Prof. Ayittey, one of the top 100 public intellectuals in the world, asked what happened to the roads leading into the state.

The Professor also queried the President’s choice of words recalling that when asked why he had not declared his assets, Jonathan replied in an impatient tone, staying, “I don’t give a damn” about declaration of assets relating how he attempted to stop the late President Umaru Yar’Adua from doing same to no avail and claiming that it was a matter of principle.

“The president said it’s a matter of principle and whether he is criticised from ‘head to toe’ he will not declare his assets,” he queried reminding the President that it was a constitutional requirement to declare his assets and urging him to go study Chapter VI, Part 1, Section 140 of Nigeria’s Constitution titled: “Declaration of assets and liabilities, oaths of President.”

He criticised the President for saying his government was revolutionising agriculture in Nigeria by giving out cotton seeds free in the North.

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According to him, “this is the most crass definition of an agricultural revolution–by providing free seeds.”

On the President’s justification for renamning UNILAG before going to the National Assembly for approval, Prof. Ayittey declared that Jonathan put the cart before the horse, adding that he was supposed to engage in wide consultations before taking such action.

Slamming Jonathan for saying the stealing of crude oil is a Nigerian phenomenon, adding that it has gone cancerous, he reminded Jonathan that such act is a crime, not a “Nigerian phenomenon or a disease afflicting Nigerians,” adding that it was an act of cluelessness to make such comments in public.

He urged Nigerians to act by saving their country which in danger.

—Eromosele Ebhomele

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