Why Amanpour Is Not Impressed With GEJ

Journalists of the stature of Amanpour and Fareed Zakaria have seen nations like UAE, Singapore and China develop at rapid rates from 3rd world to 1st world within 20 years. You cannot impress them with snail pace improvements. That is the fact. GEJ can boast of being better than OBJ or IBB...Local champions who are fighting over who scored 35th or 34th in class. Whether GEJ likes it or not, on the global stage he is being compared with the Mandelas, Mahatir Mohammeds, and the Lula da Silvas. When you look at it from that perspective, you will understand the dismissive attitude he got from Amanpour.

The only way the president can shut his critics up is by performing (beyond expectation) on the job. A good example is Stephen Keshi. He was maligned and written off, but now everyone is singing his praises and dissecting his style of leadership as if they were not the same people that wrote him off before.

Amanpour

The world is a global village now. Journalists have information at their finger tips. Amanpour's research team would have given her information about GEJ before the interview. Guess what? What she will know about Nigeria will be from what is on our headline news everyday: Kidnapping, Terrorism, Corruption, Bad infrastructure. What she will know about GEJ will be from the headlines too: Non asset declaration, allocation of billions for travels and feeding, appointment of wife as permanent secretary, allegations of incompetence.

Fareed Zakari

It's not too late for the president to turn the tide and get some good press for a change. Just like Keshi, he needs to find fresh blood to inject into the team. He needs to drop some underachievers from his team, too. He needs to let his performance be so huge that it will silence or drown out critics. Finally, he needs to work on his public speaking skills: hire a professional, and read books too. The ability of a leader to articulate his position properly and intelligently cannot be overestimated. Do you see how Keshi handles the international press? Confidence and articulation are valuable tools of leadership.