{"id":130670,"date":"2023-12-13T13:02:01","date_gmt":"2023-12-13T13:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/12\/13\/they-call-us-giant-of-africa-but-our-giants-are-crawling-like-snails-goodluck-jonathan\/"},"modified":"2023-12-13T13:02:01","modified_gmt":"2023-12-13T13:02:01","slug":"they-call-us-giant-of-africa-but-our-giants-are-crawling-like-snails-goodluck-jonathan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/12\/13\/they-call-us-giant-of-africa-but-our-giants-are-crawling-like-snails-goodluck-jonathan\/","title":{"rendered":"“They Call Us ‘Giant Of Africa’ But Our Giants Are Crawling Like Snails” \u2014 Goodluck Jonathan"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Goodluck Jonathan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria\u2019s former President has posited that the country lacks proof to be called the Giant of Africa.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Tuesday in Abuja, at the launch of a book titled \u201cDevelopment as attitude\u201d authored by Osita Ogbu, former Minister of National Planning, Jonathan said the attitude of leaders must change to reflect the country\u2019s national interests.<\/p>\n

According to him, leaders must also be guided by a clear vision that is required to restore the respect Nigeria commanded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually believe that for us as a nation to develop, it\u2019s not just about being elected President. Even if you bring angels from heaven as the President and the attitude of Nigerians doesn\u2019t change, we may not move very fast.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery leader must be guided by a personal philosophy. I agree that holding a political office does not automatically make somebody a leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had the privilege of holding a political office but leadership requires some attributes and those attributes mean that you must have a clear vision and you must have something that guides you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Jonathan, who authored the foreword of the book also recounted efforts he made while in office to advance Nigeria\u2019s science programmes.<\/p>\n

He said the over-domestication of politics in the country has stunted national progress.<\/p>\n

READ ALSO: Powerful Nigerians Using Illegal Mining Funds To Sponsor Terrorism \u2014 Dele Alake<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI remember when I was in office, we had a nuclear and satellite programme but somehow the rate we are moving is too slow and even when I was an acting president, I was invited by the President of the US when they had the first nuclear summit and why I was invited was because Nigeria has a nuclear programme.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn society now, in any country, you are respected because of what you can offer to the world, especially in terms of development. In Nigeria, we have the best brains but until we encourage these best brains, our satellite programmes will become vegetative and our nuclear programmes will just be rotating without any movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came up with a programme that we called the presidential special scholarship for innovation and development, it was my own idea. I called the NUC chairman then, Professor Julius Okojie, the minister of education, and other key stakeholders,\u201d Jonathan added.<\/p>\n

The House of Representatives, he said, faulted the programme because \u201ccertain states were left out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must see how we must tap our best brains in the STEM areas and see how we can send them to the best universities in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we run this programme for another 10 years, believe me, Nigerians will also be thinking about going to space.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot continue to say we\u2019re giants of Africa and we crawl like garden snails. People say we\u2019re giants but giants are crawling. Our respect is almost going down because technologically we\u2019re not going anywhere,\u201d the ex-President added.<\/p>\n

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Goodluck Jonathan Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria\u2019s former President has posited that the country lacks proof to be called the Giant of Africa. Speaking on Tuesday in Abuja, at the launch of a book titled \u201cDevelopment as attitude\u201d authored by Osita Ogbu, former Minister of National Planning, Jonathan said the attitude of leaders must change to reflect […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":130671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nigeria-news"],"yoast_head":"\n"They Call Us 'Giant Of Africa' But Our Giants Are Crawling Like Snails" \u2014 Goodluck Jonathan - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/12\/13\/they-call-us-giant-of-africa-but-our-giants-are-crawling-like-snails-goodluck-jonathan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""They Call Us 'Giant Of Africa' But Our Giants Are Crawling Like Snails" \u2014 Goodluck Jonathan - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Goodluck Jonathan Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria\u2019s former President has posited that the country lacks proof to be called the Giant of Africa. 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