Jonathan blasts lobbyists says, "They are Greedy"

President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday lamented the increasing pressure on him by lobbyists for ministerial positions, lamenting that over 90 per cent of them were self-centred.

Jonathan, at the 2011 presidential inauguration lecture titled “A transformation agenda for accelerated national development,” in Abuja, said that only a few of those seeking the appointment of other Nigerians as ministers were doing so out of patriotic zeal.


He told the audience at the lecture delivered by Prof. Ladipo Ademolekun, that the self-seeking lobbyists either wanted appointments for themselves, their relatives or friends.

Jonathan said, “I know that there are two categories of lobbyists. There are those who lobby for ministerial positions for what I describe as personal reasons either for themselves, their wives, their children, their in-laws, their brothers or their friends.”

He explained that only 10 per cent of the lobbyists want people who are not their relatives to be appointed ministers.

Such people, according to him, do so out of patriotic zeal.

He added,“This set of people just love the country and believe that the person they are lobbying for has the background to do the job. Unfortunately, these type of people are less than 10 per cent.

“These people love the country. If they are lobbying for Chukwuemeka Yusuf to be minister, they will analyse him and you will know that they do not have any relationship with the person they are lobbying for.”

Jonathan also argued that Nigeria’s problem did not lie in corruption but greed.

He stated that greed was a growing concern because greedy individuals accumulate illegitimate wealth at the expense of the public.

According to him, greedy individuals amass wealth to the extent that “several generations of their children” cannot spend all that they made during their life time.

The President agreed with the position earlier taken by Ademolekun in his presentation that policy summersaults and frequent changes in the leadership of some ministries were stifling the nation’s advancement.

He said, “One thing that makes us not to transform as quickly as we want to transform is the duration of ministers’ service.

“I will not talk about the President and the Vice-President because the constitution says four years though some people have said four years are too short to make meaningful changes. I believe them.

“For instance, if a new person is elected as a governor today, it takes him one year or one-and-half years to stabilise and also know members of his team.

“That is why in most cases after one year or one-and-half years, a President or governor dissolves his cabinet and then sits down to get people to really work with him.

“By the time he settles down, another election comes and he gets busy on how to win the election. This is a constitutional problem.”

To buttress his point that frequent changes was not in the best interest of any country, the President cited the case of Nigeria which has in its more than 50 years of existence had about 24 Foreign Affairs ministers.

He said, “If you count from Tafawa Balewa to Odein Ajumogobia, you have 24 foreign ministers in a space of 51 years. That means an average of two years per minister.

“How will a country drive its foreign policy? For one to be very conversant, it takes more than two years to really understand the policies of your country vis-a-vis the international interest.

“From my interactions with foreign ministers of other countries, some of them have been there for long.”

While committing his administration to ensuring sustainable growth in the critical sectors of the economy, Jonathan said performance would be key to the continued stay of any of his ministers.

In an apparent hint of a possible return of Ajumogobia, the President Jonathan paid glowing tributes to his antecedents and commitment to public service.

Jonathan said he was aware that a lot depended on the calibre of leaders at all levels for the nation to move forward.

He also posited that corruption itself did not totally lead to retardation but greed.

He equally noted that improvements in the nation’s electoral management had considerably reduced cases of litigation.

This, he said, was likely to improve in coming elections beginning from 2015.

“My feeling is that if, within this year alone, because of the little changes we’ve done, we are able to reduce litigation by over 80 per cent I believe that by 2015 it will reduce by 95 per cent,” the President said.

Jonathan also decried what he referred to as electoral victory via the courts, saying the electorate should always be allowed to chose their leaders through the ballot.

He said, “If an election was seriously flawed, the results should be cancelled and the contestants made to return to the people to seek their mandate instead of the judiciary awarding it.”

The President said that if there was a conflict between the Executive and the National Assembly, it would be difficult for the country to achieve anything.

He noted that the way the National Assembly related with Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government was a source of concern to him.

Jonathan also said since there was a general belief that the salaries and allowances of members of National Assembly were bloated, there was a need to take a second look at it.

Earlier, Ademolekun had said the President must, as a matter of urgency settle down to business.

He advised the government to focus on key areas such as electoral legitimacy, peace and security, infrastructural development (especially power), education, health care delivery and anti-corruption campaign.

The guest lecturer expressed the opinion that Nigerians and foreigners were likely to judge the Jonathan administration as either a success or failure depending on its ability to deliver the dividends of democracy to them.

He also advised the government to take a second look at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Offences Tribunal because the war against graft seemed to be mellowing.

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