The Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola,
SAN, on Thursday faulted President Goodluck
Jonathan, for inviting parents of abducted Chibok
schoolgirls to the Presidential Villa for the purpose
of sympathising with them.He described the
development as lack of empathy, saying Jonathan's
leadership style "has re-defined empathy by inviting
the bereaved parents to the presidential villa for
commiseration.
"Fashola stated this in Abuja while delivering a
lecture on 'The challenge of Democratic Governance'
as part of activities to mark the 50th birthday
celebration of a former Governor of Bayelsa State,
Chief Timipre Sylva.
He insisted that Jonathan's attitude was "Truly
strange and Truly unAfrican"He asked, "How does
this sound? 'Hello neighbour, I heard you lost your
child to abductors. Please come and see me at home
so I can sympathise with you'."This is my
paraphrasing of what has so far transpired. As if this
was not bad enough, the event had been followed by
another round of lies about whether or not they
tried to give money to the bereaved parents.
For me, it's a low point for leadership, it suggests
lack of empathy."According to him, "The first lie
when the news of the abduction broke was that all
the abducted girls had been retrieved.
When that was exposed, the next lie was to raise
doubts whether they were truly missing. "When that
was not enough, they are now telling us that they
know where the children are. We are prayerfully
waiting that they will bring the children home."
Fashola, who had earlier canvassed for the active
involvement of the elite in politics in order to
provide necessary professional skill to drive the
nation's development, said, "Until recently, we all
used to think that our national development was
inhibited by the fact that we never had a university
graduate as leader of any national government in an
executive capacity."This perhaps alludes only faintly
to the issue of the elite consensus, but it is not the
same. Thankfully, the myth of graduate leadership as
desirable as it is, has been exploded now."We have
two graduates (one zoologist and an architect) and I
think the majority of Nigerians will tell you today
that their lives are worse off than they were four
years ago."So there is more to leadership than a
university degree and educational qualification.
There is character, vision, courage, empathy,
compassion and many more attributes that you
simply will not find in a classroom or school. They
are in homes, in communities and also in the value
system of society."Fashola therefore encouraged
politicians to make politics interesting and worth
being participated in by the professional elite.He
said, "Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, it is still
regrettable that the majority of the members of our
political parties and politicians do not yet include the
critical elite of our society."Whether we like it or not,
history has shown that the elite of any society,
especially its professional cadre, and the very best of
them decide the direction of the nation when they
come to a consensus about the pathway for their
nation, even if they belong to different political
parties.
Where are all the people who have built things with
their hands in our society? Where are the founders
of the big banks, businesses, telecoms in our body
politic? Are they just content to finance and yet
remain unwilling to take the plunge?"Are they willing
to identify with the ruling party in Abuja, and the
party in Government in their states when they get to
their bases for fear of reprisals?" he asked.
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