‘Nigeria Can Not Be Called Giant Of Africa, It Crawls Like Garden Snails’ – Jonathan

Former President, Goodluck Jonathan, has expressed doubts about Nigeria’s status as the “Giant of Africa,” citing a lack of substantial evidence.

Despite predictions of Nigeria becoming the third most populous country, Jonathan emphasizes that population alone doesn’t define a nation’s greatness.

At a book launch in Abuja, Jonathan stressed the need for leadership attitudes to align with the nation’s interests for true development.

The former president, who contributed to the book, underscored the importance of clear leadership vision in regaining Nigeria’s global standing.

Jonathan said, “I actually believe that for us as a nation to develop, it’s not just about being elected president. Even if you bring angels from heaven as the president and the attitude of Nigerians doesn’t change, we may not move very fast.

“Every leader must be guided by a personal philosophy. I agree that holding a political office does not automatically make somebody a leader.

“I had the privilege of holding a political office but leadership requires some attributes and those attributes mean that you must have a clear vision and you must have something that guides you.”

While recounting efforts he made while in office to advance Nigeria’s science programmes, the former president said the over-domestication of politics in the country has also stunted national progress.

Jonathan, “I remember when I was in office, we had a nuclear and satellite programme but somehow the rate we are moving is too slow and even when I was an acting president, I was invited by the president of the US when they had the first nuclear summit and why I was invited was because Nigeria has a nuclear programme.

“In society now, in any country, you are respected because of what you can offer to the world, especially in terms of development. In Nigeria, we have the best brains but until we encourage these best brains, our satellite programmes will become vegetative and our nuclear programmes will just be rotating without any movement.

“We came up with a programme that we called the presidential special scholarship for innovation and development, it was my own idea. I called the NUC chairman then, Professor Julius Okojie, the minister of education, and other key stakeholders.”

However, Jonathan said the House of Representatives faulted the programme because “certain states were left out”.

He further stated, “We must see how we must tap our best brains in the STEM areas and see how we can send them to the best universities in the world.

“If we run this programme for another 10 years, believe me, Nigerians will also be thinking about going to space.

“We cannot continue to say we’re giants of Africa and we crawl like garden snails. People say we’re giants but giants are crawling. Our respect is almost going down because technologically we’re not going anywhere.”

Jonathan hailed Ogbu for writing the book, saying it would be useful to navigate the nation’s challenges.

Ogbu in his statement said many bad decisions by citizens are fuelled by the widening gap between the rich and the poor and tasked stakeholders to draw up innovative ways to tackle poverty.