A new image of Nigeria's president has emerged in the first month of this year.It is not that of the ever-smiling and reluctant leader many Nigerians had taken him for over the past three years. The President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan we knew was the man who on being accused last year of having no clues about how to deal with the country's myriad problems retorted that he could not be an army general spraying orders.Today the president in state house at Aso Rock in the capital, Abuja, is no longer unaware that he is, indeed, the commander-in-chief of Nigeria's armed forces.
The first lady, Patience Jonathan, must have privately celebrated this new-found confidence in her darling.Labour unions and civil society groups were taken aback when, after a week of a nationwide strike against the petrol price hike, they were suddenly confronted by this emerging Jonathan.Like everybody else, they only heard on the radio the president's announcement that he had unilaterally reduced the increase by half.We may not know what pressure was mounted on the unionists behind the scenes but they meekly came off their high horse and accepted the new price.
