{"id":12097,"date":"2016-10-26T18:57:31","date_gmt":"2016-10-26T18:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=12097"},"modified":"2016-10-26T19:01:24","modified_gmt":"2016-10-26T19:01:24","slug":"jonathan-joins-league-of-ex-us-presidents-uk-pms-to-have-spoken-at-oxford-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=12097","title":{"rendered":"Jonathan joins league of ex-US presidents, UK PMs. Dalai Lama, Michael Jackson to have spoken at Oxford Union"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><code><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/code><\/p>\n<p>Jonathan joins a long list of influential personalities, including Michael Jackson, late king of Pop; Sheikh Hasina, Bangladeshi prime minister; Robert Greene, author of 48 laws of power; the Dalai Lama; former British prime ministers Winston Churchill, Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher and John Major; Mother Teresa; and former US presidents Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the 190-year old Union, domiciled in the University of Oxford, Jonathan said his government was not perfect but it made Nigeria the biggest economy in Africa and the 23rd largest in the world.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=11314&amp;ad_type=59&amp;rl=180\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Speaking on the \u2018Transformation Agenda\u2019 at Oxford University on Monday, Jonathan said his administration invested in Nigeria\u2019s \u00a0youth, and made the country experience unprecedented growth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a leader, you can decide through your policies to educate the youths, or face the consequences of failing to do so.\u00a0The Transformation Agenda was conceived to engage the latent potential in the entire nation, and to stimulate and enable higher productivity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe increased the allowances due to Youth Corp members by more than 100% in 2011.\u00a0As Governor of Bayelsa State and later the President of Nigeria, I asked myself some critical questions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy do individuals that grow up in similar circumstances end up differently, with some as successes and others as failures?\u00a0Why are some nations rich and some poor?\u00a0Is the wealth of nations a result of geography, weather, culture, destiny, etc.?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat could a leader do to effectively lift a people out of the depths of poverty, and enable them to achieve prosperity?\u00a0After much soul searching, I concluded that: wealth is a creation of the human mind properly prepared by education.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAny nation that does not spend its wealth and resources to develop the capacity of its youth will be forced to use them to fight insecurity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said his government \u201cidentified Nollywood as a sector that can employ many young people and provided a grant of $200 million to boost the industry\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a result, Nollywood became a major contributor to our GDP and in 2014, the industry contributed 1.4% to our GDP.\u00a0My Administration came up with various programs to encourage young entrepreneurs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI urge contemporary African leaders to see youth entrepreneurship as a collective project transcending national boundaries.\u00a0Despite incredible challenges, Nigerian youths are achieving great things and placing Nigeria positively in the world map. They inspire us.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe may not have been perfect, but we did our best, and our best yielded an era of unprecedented economic growth for Nigeria.\u00a0A growth that proved the truism that a Nation\u2019s wealth is not underneath the ground but between the ears of her people<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnder my watch, Nigeria was projected by CNN Money to be the third fastest-growing economy in the world for the year 2015. Nigeria was rated as the largest economy in Africa and the 23rd in the world by the World Bank and the IMF, with a GDP above US$570 billion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile serving as President of Nigeria, <a href=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Jonathan.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12098\" src=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Jonathan.jpg\" alt=\"jonathan\" width=\"258\" height=\"195\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Alayo-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-11749\" src=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Alayo-2-300x250.jpg\" alt=\"alayo-2\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Alayo-2-300x250.jpg 300w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Alayo-2.jpg 559w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>. I have no regrets for what I did.\u00a0Somebody must sacrifice and work for the next generation otherwise your children\u2019s children will suffer the same predicaments as you have.\u201d Source: www.thecable.ng<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p><code><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=11314&amp;ad_type=59&amp;rl=180\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/code><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jonathan joins a long list of influential personalities, including Michael Jackson, late king of Pop; Sheikh Hasina, Bangladeshi prime minister; Robert Greene, author of 48 laws of power; the Dalai Lama; former British prime ministers Winston Churchill, Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher and John Major; Mother Teresa; and former US presidents Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[1504,997,3184],"class_list":["post-12097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-dalai-lama","tag-jimmy-carter","tag-margaret-thatcher"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Jonathan.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-397","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12097"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12100,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12097\/revisions\/12100"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}