Fashola berates Jonathan over Chibok girls’ parents invitation

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, SAN, on Thursday faulted President Goodluck Jonathan, for inviting parents of abducted Chibok schoolgirls to the Presidential Villa for the purpose of sympathising with them.He described the development as lack of empathy, saying Jonathan’s leadership style “has re-defined empathy by inviting the bereaved parents to the presidential villa for commiseration.”Fashola stated this in Abuja while delivering a lecture on ‘The challenge of Democratic Governance’ as part of activities to mark the 50th birthday celebration of a former Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Timipre Sylva. He insisted that Jonathan’s attitude was “Truly strange and Truly unAfrican”He asked, “How does this sound? ‘Hello neighbour, I heard you lost your child to abductors. Please come and see me at home so I can sympathise with you’.“This is my paraphrasing of what has so far transpired. As if this was not bad enough, the event had been followed by another round of lies about whether or not they tried to give money to the bereaved parents. For me, it’s a low point for leadership, it suggests lack of empathy.”According to him, “The first lie when the news of the abduction broke was that all the abducted girls had been retrieved. When that was exposed, the next lie was to raise doubts whether they were truly missing. “When that was not enough, they are now telling us that they know where the children are. We are prayerfully waiting that they will bring the children home.” Fashola, who had earlier canvassed for the active involvement of the elite in politics in order to provide necessary professional skill to drive the nation’s development, said, “Until recently, we all used to think that our national development was inhibited by the fact that we never had a university graduate as leader of any national government in an executive capacity.“This perhaps alludes only faintly to the issue of the elite consensus, but it is not the same. Thankfully, the myth of graduate leadership as desirable as it is, has been exploded now.“We have two graduates (one zoologist and an architect) and I think the majority of Nigerians will tell you today that their lives are worse off than they were four years ago.“So there is more to leadership than a university degree and educational qualification. There is character, vision, courage, empathy, compassion and many more attributes that you simply will not find in a classroom or school. They are in homes, in communities and also in the value system of society.”Fashola therefore encouraged politicians to make politics interesting and worth being participated in by the professional elite.He said, “Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, it is still regrettable that the majority of the members of our political parties and politicians do not yet include the critical elite of our society.“Whether we like it or not, history has shown that the elite of any society, especially its professional cadre, and the very best of them decide the direction of the nation when they come to a consensus about the pathway for their nation, even if they belong to different political parties.Where are all the people who have built things with their hands in our society? Where are the founders of the big banks, businesses, telecoms in our body politic? Are they just content to finance and yet remain unwilling to take the plunge?“Are they willing to identify with the ruling party in Abuja, and the party in Government in their states when they get to their bases for fear of reprisals?” he asked.