Reno Omokri has described Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, as “the most humane and decent person I have ever met”, on the occasion of the former President’s 67th birthday today, Wednesday 20 November, 2024.
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| Reno Omokri | Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Photo: @renoomokri |
Jonathan was born on 20 November, 1957 in Ogbia, Bayelsa State, Nigeria.
Reno Omokri wrote: “A Special Birthday Message To Former President Jonathan
Former President Goodluck Jonathan is the most humane and decent person I have ever met. And I have travelled worldwide and met different faces in various places.
If I could describe him, I would say it this way. If you can imagine all the goodness in the sometimes dirty game of politics and put it in one individual, that person would be Dr. Jonathan.
If you were an out-of-school Northern Nigerian child, your best friend in the world would be the man who built almost two hundred almajiri schools so you could have a future and hope.
For the struggling and unemployed Nigerian youth, you could not have had it better than a President who gave out grants of between $10,000 to $50,000 to almost 4000 youths to start or grow a business as part of his Youths With Innovation in Nigeria (YouWIN).
And if you were a pensioner, you had a champion in President Jonathan, who paid more pensions in five years than any of his predecessors.
Because he built twelve new Federal universities and two specialised universities, fifty-five thousand additional Nigerians can now be admitted as undergraduates annually.
And if you live in the Southeastern region of Nigeria, every time you fly internationally from Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, former President Jonathan puts at least ₦200,000 into your pocket. This is the money you would have spent trying to connect to your international flight from Abuja, Lagos, or Port Harcourt.
But because the Face of Democracy in Africa upgraded that airport, you no longer have to spend that money.
Whether it is the Loko-Oweto Bridge that shortened travel time between North and South by ninety minutes, or the Abuja-Kaduna Super Fast Railway that made Abuja and Kaduna twin cities, or even the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria project, no zone in this country would not continue to feel the impact of Jonathan for at least the next one hundred years.
But what most endears me to him is the fact that President Jonathan is the rarest of beings: A man who wielded power without losing his simplicity.
The first time I met him as a sitting President, I guess I was a bit nervous, and my phone fell, and this man, then the leader of 185 million Nigerians, bent down, picked it up, gave it to me, and continued discussing as though nothing had happened.
When he said, ‘My ambition is not worth the blood of any Nigerian’, he meant it. And he has lived it ever since leaving office. Which is why he is the most sought after former President in Africa.
Indeed, Dr. Jonathan proved that it is much better to gain honour at the cost of losing power than to gain power at the cost of losing honour.
His ability to take pain and pleasure with equanimity offered serendipity to the nation at a time when we needed the panacea of peace and unity most urgently. And in that moment, he secured his place in the history of the greats.
On his sixty-seventh birthday, it is my pride and honour, as well as a joy to me, to wish Dr. Goodluck Jonathan a happy birthday. May God bless you, and may you never diminish during your lifetime and in posterity.
Happy birthday to the Face of Democracy in Africa.”
A Special Birthday Message To Former President Jonathan
Former President Goodluck Jonathan is the most humane and decent person I have ever met. And I have travelled worldwide and met different faces in various places.
If I could describe him, I would say it this way. If you… pic.twitter.com/Xg3XAvnhCU
— Reno Omokri (@renoomokri) November 20, 2024
