Sycophants’ll make you derail, IBB warns Jonathan •Condemns arrest of el-Rufai by SSS

Posted by admin Goodluck Jonathan (2010-present), Ibrahim Babangida (1985-93), Presidency Monday, July 4th, 2011

FORMER military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, has admonished President Goodluck Jonathan not to derail from the promise of transformative leadership which he made during his presidential campaign, just as he condemned the arrest of former Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir el’Rufai, by security operatives.

Babangida, in a statement made available to the Nigerian Tribune by his media aide, Kazeem Sule Afegbua, expressed regrets that the president had been allowing sycophants to make him derail from his key campaign promises, advising him to, henceforth, strictly weigh suggestions from obsequious aides before acting.

The sycophants, Babangida noted, had not been allowing Jonathan to properly reach out to the majority of Nigerians to sell his government’s programmes, suggesting that they were the ones initiating arrests and detention of prominent individuals who he said, had been expressing their opinion on issues.

The former president further urged Jonathan to concentrate on the onerous task of governance and avoid dabbling into trivial matters which, he said, would cause his government to further lose focus.

Lamenting the state of the nation, he said, “the polity is heated up through crises including minimum wage, arrests of prominent persons, petroleum subsidy debate, Islamic Banking and several other issues. Nigerians truly need positive governance, which I think we should work for rather than dissipate energy on frivolous issues that would not lead us any- where”.

He added, “it is against this background that I will like to advise President Goodluck Jonathan to tread cautiously so that those sycophants, in and out of government will not derail his focus. He needs all the comportment, resilience, perseverance, introspection and determination to be able to take the right decisions for the good of the country.

“The arrest and release of Mallam Nasir el-Rufai is a deliberate distraction which the president must run away from. He must avoid gambling with decisions and he must be willing to seek a third opinion on issues before he takes his decision”

He said his decision to advise Jonathan through the media stemmed from an urgent need to pass a message to him that he should be conscious of the growing public concern on how his government has been handling state affairs.

He said, “President Jonathan must understand that there is a whole body of people out there who are not happy with happenings in the country. It is his responsibility as the president of the country to reach out to them and make his mission understandable to the common man on the street so that they can buy into his government.

“If his body of advisers do not understand the temperament in the country and decide to embark on arresting and releasing people on very questionable allegations, they will be making enemies for the president instead of friends. The prerogative is that of the president and no one else.”

-Tribunewp_posts