President Goodluck Jonathan has called on those heaping praises on him to hold on until he leaves the Presidential Villa.
According to him, the best time to praise public office holders was after leaving office, by the time their achievements were compared with those of their predecessors.
The President made this remark while addressing a delegation from his home state, Bayelsa, led by Governor Seriake Dickson in Abuja on Tuesday.
Members of the delegation led by Dickson were in the Presidential Villa, Abuja to felicitate with the President on the Christmas and New Year festivities.
The President, however, promised to make his people proud by surmounting the various problems currently confronting the nation.
He said, “I always say that I will not even expect praises now because hardly do people praise serving leaders, it is when you leave. When you leave, people will begin to compare what you have done over the period vis-a-vis what others have done.
“Probably that is the time some people will begin to say good things about you. But I will do my best to make sure that we do change things. We are trying to create an enabling environment for our economy to thrive irrespective of the challenges we are having in the petroleum sector and the security challenges we have.
“I will do my best so that by the time I will leave, you will be able to say that when our son was there, he served the country well so that one day, another son of Bayelsa may be given another opportunity to serve Nigerians.”
Jonathan also admitted that it had become a ‘global culture’ for people to attack their leaders, especially on the social media platforms.
He regretted that people were using different things that had been created by people’s knowledge for negative purposes.
The President added, “These days, there are all kind of stories. It is all over the world, leaders are being lambasted, especially with the social media now.
“People use what knowledge had created for negative reasons. Just as I was told that the person who invented the dynamite regretted that invention because he thought he was coming up with something to solve human problem, but when he got to know about the level of destruction: human lives that are being blown up because of explosion, the man regretted that invention.
“What is supposed to be used for the common good was turned to negative purposes.”
Jonathan reiterated his position that 2015 would be a challenging year for the country because of the general elections.
“The new year is full of challenges for Nigerians because of the early elections. Everywhere will be hot from January 2”, he declared.
Speaking earlier, Governor Dickson had told the President on behalf of the delegation that the people of the state were proud of his service to the nation Nigeria.
Dickson said, “We are proud of your service. We are here to show solidarity and to let everybody know that your people are always with you in deed and in prayers.
“It is in the spirit of Christmas that we are here on behalf of the people of the state to wish you, your family and government compliments of the season and wish you victorious 2015.
“We bring you prayers and message of solidarity. We thank all Nigerians for the support and prayers they have been giving you.
“We are proud of the service you are giving to our country and we appreciate your transformation agenda”.
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