By Danielle Lobito
Priscilla Nwikpo, Otunba Olabode Osenie and Dr Segun Johnson on BEN TV (Photo: Chatterbox)
Does President Goodluck Jonathan talk out of context? Some people think he does and he may not be aware of it. BEN TV (Sky Channel 184) presenter and political analyst Priscilla Nwikpo normally supports the presidency on national issues apart from two weeks ago. On the current affairs programme You Decide, she said that Jonathan should refrain from replying critics and allow his Spin Doctor Reuben Abati to do the image laundering job for him.
A spin doctor cannot tell his boss to ‘shut up’ in Africa unless he wants to lose his job within five minutes; not even within 24hrs. Once, we had to watch a documentary on a former foremost British spin doctor because he was going to deliver a university lecture as a guest lecturer. Spin doctoring in many African countries entail doing what the employer wants rather than doing the job. It is easy for critics to call Abati a sycophant but sycophancy is an important factor if an African spin doctor wants to keep his job.
However, Abati could make sure that the president has speeches written for him often, in order to curb excessive or unwarranted comments. Nevertheless, it is up to the president to read such speeches. On the allegation of ? consumption. It is better to avoid it before attending public events in order not to be tagged a 'drunken fisherman'.
Jonathan should allow Abati to do his job properly. Of course, it is not Abati’s job to tell Jonathan which private events to attend etcetera. Apart from talking too much, we saw Jonathan at the christening of an Aide-de-camp’s baby on TV. What was he doing there? When did Aide-de-camps become dignitaries or celebrities in Nigeria?
Jonathan may not have enough work to do as Nigeria’s president. Have you seen other presidents at such celebrations in recent times? Instead of cutting cakes here and there, why not start renewable energy projects across the country since the nation is normally in darkness with 'epileptic' power supply?
Right now, a zoologist like President Jonathan needs to be told that Nigeria is not a zoo where you can refuse to build more oil refineries, embark on fake removal of fuel subsidy and blame some oil companies for Nigeria’s economic woes. Some oil moneybags have been taught a bitter lesson, to stop funding a ‘crumbling’ political party like the ruling Peoples Democratic Party. Wouldn’t most Nigerians prefer the removal of Jonathan than the removal of fuel subsidy?
***Nwikpo presents Insight with Priscilla on BEN TV. On a subsequent edition of You Decide which is usually presented by Dr Segun Johnson, Otunba Dele Momodu and Priscilla Nwikpo were the commentators. Nwikpo and Momodu explained that they initially supported President Goodluck Jonathan when he was in a cold war with the cabal but they presently support the masses on the fuel subsidy removal saga.
Oil Subsidy Is Fiction
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Nigeria leads African mobile web usage
By Daniel Momoh
Nigeria now ranks as the fifth-largest country in the world and number one in Africa for Opera Mini browser usage, surpassing other technology-savvy countries like China, the United States and Brazil, the company has said in a press release.
The report, which revealed the top four sites for Nigerian mobile surfers to be Facebook, Google, Yahoo!, and the BBC, also shows that Nigerians now engage in more data services with 90 percent of mobile surfing done using Opera Mini.
The company say the flexibility of the mobile browser, adapting to more than 3,000 different mobile-phone models, from basic feature phones to the latest smartphones has also accounted for the surge in the mobile web users, which is responsible for the 73 percent of all mobile web users in Africa.
Culled from NEXT
Opera Mini & Opera Mobile
Opera Mobile Labs 11.5 for MeeGo netbooks and tablets
