President Goodluck Jonathan President Goodluck Jonathan was in Katsina State recently and in the course of his visit, stopped by at the home of his late boss, former president Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, almost four years after the man had passed on. And when ushered in to meet the matriarch of the family, the Nigerian president went straight down on his kneel, ostensibly in a show of respect. A national tragedy, many had reckoned. But that was not his first. The president, who seems to enjoy making photo-ops of his outings, whether or not they add value, had attended many religious centres where he knelt for prayers. In 2010, preparatory to his election in 2011, he was at the Redeemed Christian Church of God where he knelt before Pastor Enoch Adebayo as the whole congregation watched him pray for the president. The photo was deliberately circulated for political denotations and it achieved results. He’s been back at the Redeem Church for a thank you visit, albeit three years after and not without another photo show. Last year, the president went on holy pilgrimage to Jerusalem with an unwieldy entourage and at some point, was laid hands on in prayer by some men of God led by President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor. And now, his visit to Yar’Adua’s mother where he knelt as if he came begging for alms. Please note, nothing is wrong with the president kneeling for prayers but something is fundamentally untidy where he makes photo-ops of such outings. That aside, something is awfully wrong with the father of the nation going down on his kneels for his subjects. It is not about him at the point but the office he embodies. It’s about time the president understood that the office is bigger than him and regardless of where he is coming from (whether or not he had shoes growing up); the sanctity of that office is not negotiable. Nothing from his public showings in recent time underscored humility but a primitive tendency of a man who found himself in an office bigger than his dreams. He should take a calculated break from this cheap, denigrating and ill-conceived presidential minding because whether or not he likes it, a generation of future leaders with clearer heads and visions that transcend his cave-age appeal will someday take over the reins of power and should not be forced to deal with the nemesis of another man’s poor upbringing
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 06:58:04 +0000
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