Yesterday, I saw a number of posts on how Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iwealla ‘floored’ Christiane Amanpour to the point the latter ‘quickly ended the interview’. Unfortunately, I hadn’t seen the interview, so I didn’t comment for I knew not what transpired.
Thankfully, CNN aired the interview today on a repeat ‘Amanpour’. In my opinion, a good number of people confuse eloquence with the truth. That an individual possesses oratory skills doesn’t mean the person is guaranteed to tell the truth. What it means, in my opinion of course, is that the person is able to tell untruths intelligently. So much so that sometimes, one begins to doubt what the truth is.
Most annoying though is this argument of ‘it is not only Nigeria’… I find it repulsive! True, we can’t be the only country that’s like this. But why can’t we aspire to be like countries where things work? Why can’t we see Brazil and Singapore with whom we were at par some decades ago, evaluate our standings since, say year 2000 and do same for 2010. What’s with always giving excuses?
Was Dr. Iwealla eloquent? Very yes. Did the things she said on ‘Amanpour’ reflect the situation of the Nigeria I live in? Hell, no!
One last thing, I don’t think Christiane Amanpour ‘hurriedly ended the interview’ as some would want us to believe. I think the government has decided to ‘buy’ 3 mins on the programme on some PR stunt… I can bet soon Ms. Amanpour will play host to Uncle R, Dr. D and Mr. L. Rebranding Nigeria Project you may call it…. But Nigeria needs a much more practical approach than that at rebranding. Spend those funds on providing the infrastructures and legislations and watch Nigerians rebrand this nation.
