Once Nigeria’s poor leadership problem is solved, the country will attain its desired greatness and rank among some of the best nations in the world.
This is the consensus reached on Tuesday by different speakers at the fourth annual lecture of Freedom Online newspaper held in Lagos and chaired by former governor of Kaduna State, Senator Ahmed Makarfi.
Speakers at the occasion include former governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel; former governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi; former Director-General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, and Executive Secretary, Centre of Development and Policy Studies, Ilepa, Ogun State, Professor Akinyemi Onigbinde.
Other are former Deputy National Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Olabode George, and Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Adams.
In his presentation as the keynote speaker, Otunba Gbenga Daniel identified the major problem confronting Nigeria’s growth despite its resources as bad leadership.
He said once Nigerians were able to have the desired true leaders in place, all the problems in the country would be solved.
He however warned that solving the problem would not be automatic as Nigerians had to make conscious efforts to be thorough in the nation’s recruitment process by ensuring that only those that would truly serve the needs of the country and its people were elected.
His words: “We need leadership that has an automatic balance with talking and showing work.
“Anybody can rant and make promises, but we have to be intentional to ensure that we let those who know how to bring to life these visions.”
He stated further: “Nigerians have to realise that the only way to see a developed Nigeria is to ensure that they vote with their brain and not their stomach, because a night with hunger is better than four years of pain and struggle, I believe.
“The next election gives an opportunity for us to rewrite the destiny of this country. So, the decision we make next year will be with us for another eight years; that is long enough to make the country better or worse.”
Obi who was the Special Guest Speaker at the occasion corroborated Daniel’s position.
He said it was unfortunate that despite being very blessed with human and natural resources, there were signs that Nigeria had failed as a nation.
The former governor of Anambra State said most Nigerian leaders were not realistic, hence their inability to solve the nation’s problems.
Said Obi: “Most of our leaders are idealistic and not realistic. All we are experiencing today is a cumulative of leadership failure over the years.
“Poor leadership can destroy everything we claim to have and this is one of the problems in Nigeria. We have these leaders because our recruitment process is poor.
“The quality of leaders is poor, the selection process is poor. People are coming to contest for the election but nobody is questioning their background.
“We ought not to compare a country like ours with China which has no natural resources but is ranked as one of the great sevens. Let us compare our country with countries with the same population.
“It’s quite obvious we have everything but lack leadership.”
He added that Nigerians had to be part of the process of changing the system otherwise the problem would continue to linger.
“All of us have to be a part of it to be able to change the system but we said it isn’t our business so lunatics took over,” he said.
Dakuku Peterside, suggested that Nigerians should forget about the past and face the future.
He said the earlier they took care of the nation’s recruitment process and elect leaders who would be realistic and face the problems, the better.
He said Nigerians needed unity and shared vision to be able to achieve success.
He said 2023 would be an opportunity to effect a change for the better in the recruitment process.
