Read the piece by Reno Omokri below...On Tuesday, November 20, 2018, the
Face of Democracy in Africa, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, will be 61 years
old. On that same day, he will be presenting his brilliant book, My
Transition Hours, to the public.Finally, through that book, the world
will get to see the man behind close doors and will, I hope, found out
that no Nigerian leader has shown the level of self sacrifice, self
control and restraint that former President Jonathan showed during and
after his five-year tenure as President.However, because of a long
succession of brutal military dictators beginning from 1966 and
continuing even into the advent of the Fourth Republic, many Nigerians
have been conditioned to see brutality as strength and restraint as
weakness.But after three years of a brutal and brutally ineffective
President, many citizens are only coming to know now what I knew in
2010-that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan is a leader of men who sees the people
as the big picture rather than himself.He tried to show Nigerians the
true meaning of leadership. Unfortunately, the psyche of our people has
for long been conditioned to respecting leaders who rule, who boss and
who throw their weight around. It was a culture shock to have a leader
who rather than throw his considerable weight around, three his
intellect around, which is why no leader in Nigeria’s history has built
as many schools as Dr. Jonathan did.And the thing is that he did not
have to. Primary education is the constitutional preserve of the states.
Yet President Jonathan built 165 almajiri schools because he could not
sit by and watch as 11 million Nigerian children, mostly in the North,
were out of the school system.Not stopping there, he built fourteen new
universities comprising of twelve new federal universities and two
specialised universities. Before Jonathan, 12 Nigerian states had no
federal universities. After Jonathan, no Nigerian state was without at
least one university.I had the privilege of asking him why he did what
he did and he told me in California, while playing with my children, as
follows ‘Reno, no investment yields as much profit as education’.
Indeed, Jonathan is a philosopher king!From him, I learnt that the best
way to be a leader is not to boss people around, but to help solve their
problems. Think of it this way. There are many ships in the sea and the
sea is dark. If you want all the ships to come to you, then be a
lighthouse and they will come to you of their own accord.I remember when
I joined him on a trip to London and at the airport, the Nigerian High
Commission to the U.K. had provided a Mercedes sedan to pick him up from
the airport. I was to join him at his hotel, so I escorted him to the
car with another of his associates. He got in and then looked at me and
asked what I was waiting for. I told him I would get a taxi and he goes,
‘don’t be silly’, then does the most amazing thing. He shifted to the
middle of the back seat and beckoned on my friend and I to join him on
what is known as the owners’ corner in Nigeria. I know of no other
leader with the humility to do that. A quintessential leader is Dr.
Jonathan. A man who treated everyone with respect even though he was the
President of the largest Black nation on earth who led her to become
Africa’s economy. One thing you can be sure of is that if President
Jonathan is looking down at you, he is doing so only because he is
admiring your shoes.I learnt true humility from him, but it was in the
area of communication that President Jonathan schooled me the best. From
him I discovered that learning the art of communication will make you a
leader. Dr. Jonathan never speak just to express yourself. He considers
that a waste of time. Rather, he always speaks to persuade others. When
others are talking, he listens to them as if they are the most
important persons on earth. Honestly, it is an almost ecstatic event to
have a one on one communication with Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.As he turns
61 today, I want to remind Nigerians of a statement he made four years
ago.On the 7th of March 2014, then President Jonathan said “I am loyal
to Nigeria’s economy. I don’t have accounts or property abroad. All my
children school in Nigeria”.Till date, nobody has been able to
contradict that statement because it is true. But even more impressive
is the fact that not one of those who have made it their career to blame
Jonathan for everything that is wrong with their lives, can say the
same thing.Dr. Jonathan was able to achieve this because he was a
patriot who really believes in Nigeria. Look at his initiatives to turn
around the lives of Nigerian youths. You have the Youth Enterprise With
Innovation in Nigeria (YouWin), the Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS),
the Presidential Special Scholarship Scheme for Innovations and
Development scholarships (PRESSID) to First Class graduates of Nigerian
universities to mention a few.With these schemes, it is no wonder that
Nigeria under Jonathan became the third fastest growing economy in the
world according to CNNMoney and the International Monetary
Fund.Nowadays, those who rode to power on the back of the freedoms that
Dr. Jonathan ensured in Nigeria now threaten to lock up their critics
citing ‘hate speech’. Have these individuals ever sat down to consider
that under Jonathan’s leadership, not one single person was sent to
prison because of anything he or she wrote or said about the President
or the government he headed. Nigeria had no political prisoners under
Jonathan’s administration and the nation certainly did not have any
prisoners of conscience because Jonathan himself ensured that he acted
according to his conscience in all he did.On social media, I read many
Nigerian youths saying things like, how did we go from 'my ambition is
not worth the blood of any Nigerian' to being called lazy Nigerian
youths? That is one question I cannot answer. But one thing I know, the
Nigerian youth under President Jonathan were some of the most talented
and productive.That is why Nigeria was rated by Gallup as the happiest
nation in the world under Jonathan. Think about that for a minute and
then join me in wishing Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan a very well deserved
happy birthday as well as a long and fulfilled life to continue serving
humanity through the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation.The post 61st Birthday: Goodluck Jonathan to launch book 'My Transition Hours' 61st Birthday: Goodluck Jonathan to launch book 'My Transition Hours'
Read the piece by Reno Omokri below...On Tuesday, November 20, 2018, the
Face of Democracy in Africa, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, will be 61 years
old. On that same day, he will be presenting his brilliant book, My
Transition Hours, to the public.Finally, through that book, the world
will get to see the man behind close doors and will, I hope, found out
that no Nigerian leader has shown the level of self sacrifice, self
control and restraint that former President Jonathan showed during and
after his five-year tenure as President.However, because of a long
succession of brutal military dictators beginning from 1966 and
continuing even into the advent of the Fourth Republic, many Nigerians
have been conditioned to see brutality as strength and restraint as
weakness.But after three years of a brutal and brutally ineffective
President, many citizens are only coming to know now what I knew in
2010-that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan is a leader of men who sees the people
as the big picture rather than himself.He tried to show Nigerians the
true meaning of leadership. Unfortunately, the psyche of our people has
for long been conditioned to respecting leaders who rule, who boss and
who throw their weight around. It was a culture shock to have a leader
who rather than throw his considerable weight around, three his
intellect around, which is why no leader in Nigeria’s history has built
as many schools as Dr. Jonathan did.And the thing is that he did not
have to. Primary education is the constitutional preserve of the states.
Yet President Jonathan built 165 almajiri schools because he could not
sit by and watch as 11 million Nigerian children, mostly in the North,
were out of the school system.Not stopping there, he built fourteen new
universities comprising of twelve new federal universities and two
specialised universities. Before Jonathan, 12 Nigerian states had no
federal universities. After Jonathan, no Nigerian state was without at
least one university.I had the privilege of asking him why he did what
he did and he told me in California, while playing with my children, as
follows ‘Reno, no investment yields as much profit as education’.
Indeed, Jonathan is a philosopher king!From him, I learnt that the best
way to be a leader is not to boss people around, but to help solve their
problems. Think of it this way. There are many ships in the sea and the
sea is dark. If you want all the ships to come to you, then be a
lighthouse and they will come to you of their own accord.I remember when
I joined him on a trip to London and at the airport, the Nigerian High
Commission to the U.K. had provided a Mercedes sedan to pick him up from
the airport. I was to join him at his hotel, so I escorted him to the
car with another of his associates. He got in and then looked at me and
asked what I was waiting for. I told him I would get a taxi and he goes,
‘don’t be silly’, then does the most amazing thing. He shifted to the
middle of the back seat and beckoned on my friend and I to join him on
what is known as the owners’ corner in Nigeria. I know of no other
leader with the humility to do that. A quintessential leader is Dr.
Jonathan. A man who treated everyone with respect even though he was the
President of the largest Black nation on earth who led her to become
Africa’s economy. One thing you can be sure of is that if President
Jonathan is looking down at you, he is doing so only because he is
admiring your shoes.I learnt true humility from him, but it was in the
area of communication that President Jonathan schooled me the best. From
him I discovered that learning the art of communication will make you a
leader. Dr. Jonathan never speak just to express yourself. He considers
that a waste of time. Rather, he always speaks to persuade others. When
others are talking, he listens to them as if they are the most
important persons on earth. Honestly, it is an almost ecstatic event to
have a one on one communication with Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.As he turns
61 today, I want to remind Nigerians of a statement he made four years
ago.On the 7th of March 2014, then President Jonathan said “I am loyal
to Nigeria’s economy. I don’t have accounts or property abroad. All my
children school in Nigeria”.Till date, nobody has been able to
contradict that statement because it is true. But even more impressive
is the fact that not one of those who have made it their career to blame
Jonathan for everything that is wrong with their lives, can say the
same thing.Dr. Jonathan was able to achieve this because he was a
patriot who really believes in Nigeria. Look at his initiatives to turn
around the lives of Nigerian youths. You have the Youth Enterprise With
Innovation in Nigeria (YouWin), the Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS),
the Presidential Special Scholarship Scheme for Innovations and
Development scholarships (PRESSID) to First Class graduates of Nigerian
universities to mention a few.With these schemes, it is no wonder that
Nigeria under Jonathan became the third fastest growing economy in the
world according to CNNMoney and the International Monetary
Fund.Nowadays, those who rode to power on the back of the freedoms that
Dr. Jonathan ensured in Nigeria now threaten to lock up their critics
citing ‘hate speech’. Have these individuals ever sat down to consider
that under Jonathan’s leadership, not one single person was sent to
prison because of anything he or she wrote or said about the President
or the government he headed. Nigeria had no political prisoners under
Jonathan’s administration and the nation certainly did not have any
prisoners of conscience because Jonathan himself ensured that he acted
according to his conscience in all he did.On social media, I read many
Nigerian youths saying things like, how did we go from 'my ambition is
not worth the blood of any Nigerian' to being called lazy Nigerian
youths? That is one question I cannot answer. But one thing I know, the
Nigerian youth under President Jonathan were some of the most talented
and productive.That is why Nigeria was rated by Gallup as the happiest
nation in the world under Jonathan. Think about that for a minute and
then join me in wishing Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan a very well deserved
happy birthday as well as a long and fulfilled life to continue serving
humanity through the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation.The post 61st Birthday: Goodluck Jonathan to launch book 'My Transition Hours' 
