Those who credit this President, Dr. Jonathan Goodluck with extraordinarily ripe imagination will praise him for choosing one religious occasion to promote another. Remember that this is the first time Nigerians are being ruled by a well-educated man, a doctorate degree holder who chose the last Eid day, Sunday November 6^th to commission a Bible College somewhere in Kaduna. The Eid Kabir (The greater Sallah) in the foremost Muslim holiday all over the world and for which reason, the Nigerian government itself declared the 7^th and 8^th of November as public holiday. Was he deserted by wisdom and tact?

Dr. Jonathan is a man packed full with character and he knows full well the common origins of Islam and Christianity. Along with the Jews, the Islamic faith calls the Christians “the people of the book” as they both accept that they serve one common “God” or “Allah”. Muslims must eat from the table of, and marry Christian females without raising a question.

Give him the benefit of the doubt; the President may have set out on the Sallah occasion to the Bible College to manifest the unity of the country and of the two major religions.

Clearly, he had also set out to cause a minimum of disruptions to the Sallah. The President took off in a helicopter, accompanied by two Senators, Joshua Dariye and Barnabas Gemade who clearly are not encumbered in anyway by the Sallah. If any dislocations were made, it was in regard to the elaborate Sallah reception for the Governor, Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa by the Zazzau Emirate Council. The Governor was represented on that occasion by the Secretary to the State Government, SSG due to the absence of the Deputy Governor who has himself travelled on the Hajj to Saudi Arabia. So Governor Yakowa, who from many indications runs a balanced administration and would have used the moment to deliver one of his trademark conciliatory speeches, was thus removed by reasons of protocol from the Sallah events to be with the President.

Was it then a tactless blunder on the part of the President to choose Islam’s holiest day to go out to officiate at the Bible College? That’s what some people think. A President in fair command of his judgment, if not faculties, would not have embarked on that programme on Sallah Day, a day he, as the symbol of the country's oneness, would have used to empathize with Muslims in a country deeply polarized along religious lines.

One respected Northern opinion molder minced no words in alleging that the President had thumbed his nose at Muslims by choosing their holiest occasion to travel for the commission of a facility belonging to a rival faith."It's an act of escapism." It was like the fate of the United States of America being determined on July 4^{th, the American national day.} This is an action that has caused severe annoyance to many because on the contrary, leaders all over the world are coached on doing gestures through actions symbolizing good faith on occasions like this. What did our President want to prove by choosing to embark on the Bible college? That "you Muslims, go and do your thing, my spirit is not with you?"

In Kaduna, let’s face it, relations have become strained between Christians and Muslims, almost to the breaking point. It's a broken city. On Thursday as I drove through the capital on my way to Abuja from the Sallah in Kano, my heart was in my hand following an SMS warning Muslims to not pass through Kaduna for fear of being attacked at the notorious bottle-neck settlement Gonin Gora on the outskirts of Kaduna.

Other leaders would have used this day differently doing gestures, real or symbolic to emphasize and share love with the Muslims even if that was not their faith. It is interesting that each year on their thanks-giving day, the Americans have a tradition of feasting on turkey. Following tradition, their President stands in front of the White House to let go the bird by way of "mercy" even when hundreds of that animal are being roasted inside his kitchen for his dinner guests later that evening. Here, we have the President, Governor or their wives doing the gesture of going to feed prisoners on Christmas day even where a percentage of those kept in the prisons are at their pleasure. They visit hospitals to see in-patients and issue gifts, not minding that among those in the hospitals are male and female victims of torture by police and party poltical thugs, from which these leaders have failed to protect innocent citizens. What message did the President want to convey?

This type of myopia and blunder of the Yar’Adua/Jonathan administration is the same reason that has brought this country to where it is in regard to the menace of the Boko Haram terrorism. Had there been good judgment in adequate supply, the Boko Haram street protest would have been subdued by no more serious weapons than fire hoses. Sixteen of them were gunned down in 2008. They set up a burial procession and the police and the army followed up and gunned them down. Nobody knows how many were killed. Muslims never leave their dead where they fall or in hospital mortuaries. They bury them as soon as possible same day, no autopsy.

This wretched affair caused profound shock across the world when footage of ragtag, barefooted children willfully shot by the police was shown by Al Jazeera. Both Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch protested the wanton and needless bloodshed in Maiduguri. Today, we are living with the consequence of that indiscretion. Book Haram has grown into a monster beyond the control of those who rode it mistaking it as a toy tiger. Government has merely been threatening and reacting. It has not pro acted, and there is no evidence that they are deploying themselves conscientiously to the challenge. The local notables have given government a blueprint but they are not following up on it. Is there a points man, by the way for the government on the Boko Haram? If there is, I don't know of that one.

It is never late for our President to learn to comport himself as a mature statesman. As one has said previously, Jonathan is the first-ever elected PhD holder in our presidential system. Academic credentials alone are not, however, enough to make one a statesman. Sir Winston Churchill never had intimidating academic credentials, but turned out to be one of the greatest statesmen the world has ever known. When Britain faced imminent disaster and defeat from Germany in what is famously known as the Battle of Dunkirk, he raised the national public morale which helped the British Soldiers, volunteers and civilians to resolutely resist the German onslaught.

The leader must demonstrate the ability to unite his country’s men and women and not engage in tactless acts that send the wrong message to fellow citizens. During the 2008 American Presidential Campaign, Barak Obama instantly distanced himself from the hate messages of his former Pastor. President Obama knew the implications of divisive messages, which his former Pastor was preaching purportedly to help his campaign. A President should not feed the cauldron of Nigeria’s ethnic and religious divide. His office demands the highest degree of responsibility and sensitivity. Probably President Jonathan acted innocently, but perception can cause needless potential damage to a President’s image. Things that we sometimes overlook and regard as insignificant or innocuous can cause political damage because of the nature of the office of the President occupies. Tactless acts that diminish the office of the President should be wisely avoided in the future because of the country’s delicate ethno-religious