That president Goodluck Jonathan joins, sorry, created a Facebook page is no more news, though, laudable, the concern is the sustainability of the Facebook page, his real intentions, and the sense behind such move in the first place. However, I am happy the president find time to join Facebook, by this singular act, I think by now, considering the thousands of comments that spam his page, one can conclude that “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.” Leadership is a service and a burden, it carries a great responsibility, and it requires a great deal of sacrifice.

When President Goodluck Jonathan announced that he would create a Facebook page in order to interact with Nigerians, few things came to my mind. First,  he  proved to the world that he’s computer literate and AsoRock has internet access, perhaps, China has build the promised replacement for the lost Nigeria satellite in space, or maybe even GLO, MTN, or ETISALAT  has given him a  free of charge dedicated internet service. Second, he proved that he is incapable to own and manage an interactive and well design personal website, rather has decided to contribute or generate more revenue to the  $10 billion worth of Facebook.  His Facebook PR officers should know that an average Nigerian fan on his Facebook page is apparently a potential generator of about $137 for Facebook in a week! Third, President Goodluck Jonathan has shown that he does not have a pirated software based Presidential laptop.  I even think  he may sometimes drop one or two emails to former President Obasanjo, about the forthcoming elections.

Fourth, he’s not too conservative, and likely not to develop thick skin to the feelings of the people, not arrogant or lack the necessary human relations. This means he is on his way to becoming the most popular celebrity in Nigeria, despite the obvious serious correlation-causation problem of his FB page. Fifth, President Goodluck Jonathan’s Facebook page will stop corruption and armed robbery through his FB wall, and even instruct foreign countries to respect Nigerian passport. Lastly, it is possible that President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision was influenced by his meeting with President Barack Obama earlier in April, just like his decision about Super Eagle was influenced by FIFA.  The U.S President could have advised him how he used Facebook for successful election campaign for the 2008 Presidential elections.  Obama currently has over 10 million fans on Facebook, out of the over 400 million global users of Facebook.

Is President Goodluck Jonathan’s Facebook page the best management of time Nigerians need?  The time spent on drafting his FB wall posting or reading through the thousands of comments should be diversified into deliberations on how to repair our roads, provide electricity, and make water to run in taps. This is what we need that time for. Let the GEJ realize that his 1000,000 plus fans on FB are not the greatest assets and final judges in a country of over 140 million fans.  The overall welfare of the majority of the people that have no access to internet should be the task which should reign supreme in all his decisions rather than adopting policies based on comments from FB, that are  only aired by the privileged few.

I have problem with President Goodluck Jonathan’s Facebook page. First, I doubt if he personally post the daily update on his Facebook wall, considering the great level of commitment required for such task and the flow of the well articulated choice and use of words. Secondly, there is no assurance that he reads the thousands of comments, even with his probable PR officers sitting behind a computer daily.  I was trying to imagine if President Goodluck Jonathan’s has the mind that can mentally cope with all the thousands of obsequious comments. Thirdly, all most all the post  I see daily are  full of the president’s praises, so it is possible that more time is spent on censoring the Facebook page, than in reading and responding positively. For example, my colleagues comment that the president should ask his group of executive ministers to desist from spending 10 Billion worth of PDP-style jamboree in the name of Nigeria’s independence never saw the light of the day on President Goodluck Jonathan’s Facebook page. Such vindication, if present, should never be an attribute of any high office holder.  They must know that vindictiveness is a liability and not an asset in administrating any position.  The attitude suppresses the free flow of information and encourages ill feelings. It harbours suspicion and hatred. Lastly, it could be perceived as a loser’s move, because why can’t he join/establish a dedicated simple forum that issues , feedbacks, and comments can be well catalogued on issues such as Elections, Electricity, Environment, Economy and Education amongst others.

First, the important advice to President Goodluck Jonathan is to asked is facebook PR officers to educate him on Web Content Analysis System (WCAS). If utilised, it will save him loads of time wasting, since it is hypothesized that there is no way he can cope with the thousand of comments daily. WCAS, well utilized by his colleagues (presidents), is an idea of analyzing a webpage, whereby the whole content of a webpage is collated into a database, and analyzed for descriptive statistics. This technique is implemented, will make reasonable inferences, objectively and systematically, by distinguishing determined features of a particular or block of comments. In general, “Content analysis is a summarizing, quantitative analysis of messages that relies on the scientific method (including attention to objectivity, inter-subjectivity, a priori design, reliability, validity, generalizability, replicability, and hypothesis testing) and is not limited as to the types of variables that may be measured or the context in which the messages are created or presented.” (Wikipedia). This method is commonly used by researchers to analyze any recorded transcripts, and such will be a good idea for our president’s page. This is make good policy, especially as thousands of man-hour will be save, and “Who says what, by whom, why, to what extent and with what effect?” will be easily analyzed, instead of selective response.

Relatively, I will like to advice that let it be borne in GEJ’s mind, that his daily post to falsify happiness to the majority of his fans will not always strengthens the position of ambition in power. Only his prudence, efficiency, firm actions, time consciousness, honesty of purpose and loyalty to the entire nation will be the yardstick for the country to increase the productivity outputs needed to generate the required wealth for economic stability. These should be part of the management principles which he must hold in high esteem, because his reputation comes from achieving these objectives and not from the FB page.

The activities of praise-singers who will often prevent him from seeing the real problems of the people must be consciously rebuked and neglected. Their aim, even if recruited by GEJ, will only aim to exploit such position of authority. This in real world is similar to the activities of group which the government must watch very closely, enlightened oligarchs who are in the commanding height of the society.  They hold positions of eminence and power in every sphere of our social, military, political and religious activities.  They are the power brokers, the thinker tanks and the captains of the society’s fortunes.  These peoples’ selfishness, greediness for excessive wealth at the pleasure of the populace induces them to believe that they are more important than the state. Naturally, they will never be a fan on President Goodluck Jonathan’s FB.

For his profile, the president wrote that “my life has always been about service. I am focused on serving my Creator, family and my country to the best of my ability and with your help I aim to be better at doing that”. Therefore, President Goodluck Jonathan is privileged and therefore, he should forget his human shortcomings in the performance of his duties.  They should always respect the opinion of the people and abide widely with their respective opinion as the people might deem it necessary. Candidly, President Goodluck Jonathan will not derive his position of authority from the Facebook fans; however, he should not be carried away ordinarily by power and paraphernalia that normally accompany celebrity. He is a president, and not a reality showman. Facebook aside, President Goodluck Jonathan should hold the views of the people in high regard and strive hard and effectively to maintain their confidence by approaching sincere comments rationally with great conscience and required priorities.