Several eminent Nigerians recently dissected the state of the nation
and returned a grim verdict: Nigeria is on the brink of implosion and
urgent actions are needed to halt the drift.
Leading Nigerians who shared this view include: former Governor of
Cross River State, Mr. Donald Duke; former Information Minister,
Professor Dora Akunyili; Chairman of Zinox Technologies, Chief Leo
Stan-Ekeh; former Ambassador to the United States, Ambassador George
Obiozor; Chairman of the Silverbird Group, Mr. Ben Bruce and Deputy
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Emeka Ihedioha, among
others.
They spoke at the first Nigeria Leadership Summit organised by Anabel Leadership Academy in Lagos.
Solutions proffered to save the nation include empowering the youth,
ensuring the emergence of good leaders and followers, pursuing
revolution of ideas instead of bloody revolution and amending the
constitution to cater for the welfare of the citizenry.
Other eminent persons at the event which drew about 3000 delegates
from all walks of life include: former Presidential Candidate, Prof Pat
Utomi; Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Kingsley Moghalu;
Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Inter-Party Affairs,
Senator Ben Obi; Managing Director of Diamond Bank, Dr. Alex Otti;
Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, Dr Sam Amadi
and Group Managing Director of Sahara Group, Tonye Cole.
Where Nigeria went wrong – Okoye
Prince Nicholas Okoye, convener of the Nigeria Leadership Summit and
president of Anabel Group, kick-started the discourse when he spoke on
the need for a new direction of leadership for Nigeria.
Okoye outlined the major political failures of the past and hinged
the blame on the Nigerian constitution, which he said must be amended
for the nation to make meaningful progress.
“The indigene clause must give way to state of residence; if a
Nigerian works in Lagos and pays his taxes in Lagos, he should be
allowed to represent Lagos in national issues,” he said.
He identified the indigene clause as the primary cause of recurring
sectarian violence in Nigeria, especially in Plateau State where people
are being referred to as settlers even after living in an area for over
two generations.
Not done, Okoye decried the billions of dollars Nigeria loses by
being heavily dependent on imported rice, sugar, fuel and generators. He
berated the Nigerian middle class for spending over $500 million a
month or $6 billion a year on medical services abroad and between $10 to
12 billion a year on educating middle class children in the United
States, Great Britain and Ghana.
He argued that there would be opportunities for job growth that would
accommodate Nigeria’s millions of unemployed youths if only the
leadership would focus on plugging the leaks in the system.
Citing the fear of poverty as the major cause of corruption in
Nigeria, Okoye advocated a complete mindset change for leaders in
Nigeria and making job creation the single most important driver of all
government policies.
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| Donald Duke |
He lamented that about $400 billion stolen funds were stashed in
foreign bank accounts by corrupt politicians and civil servants. To
recover the funds, Okoye advocated a six-month financial amnesty for
anybody that has never been charged, whereby the Federal Government will
allow all looted funds to return to Nigeria over a six-month period
with no questions asked, provided the individuals responsible pay a 10
per cent Federal Government tax, 5 per cent tax to their chosen state of
residence and invest the 85 per cent balance of the funds in key target
areas of the economy that would create jobs for millions of Nigerian
youths.
Bad followership hinders devt –Duke
Speaking at the summit, Duke said followers in Nigeria were as
culpable as the leaders for the nation’s rot since they do not hold
their leaders accountable. He pointed out that if the followers remained
docile and did not demand accountability from their leaders then there
was little or no incentive on the part of the leaders to change their
ways because “if ‘mugu’ no fall guy man no go chop.”
Let’s halt the drift into abyss – Akunyili
To Dora Akunyili, who spoke on “Principles-centered leadership: A
Nigerian experience,” there is the need for leaders to have principles
and the followers to have life-changing ideas. Recalling how she almost
lost her life as director-general of the National Agency for Food, Drug
Administration and Control, NAFDAC, when she took on fake and
adulterated drugs cartels, she said the country should not be allowed to
continue the drift into abyss.
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| Dora Akunyili |
“Some people have been talking about bloody revolution, what we need
is revolution of ideas,” she said and appealed to the present generation
of leaders to read the writing on the wall and not wait until it was
too late to act.
In an emotion-laden tone, she said: “What we are seeing here is deep
energy by people that are angry. What is happening in Nigeria cannot
continue. Yes it cannot continue. A leader is not just the president,
governor, minister or director. A mother is a leader of the home; a
father is a super leader of the home. The chief cleaner of a hotel is a
leader there. So at any level ineffective, non-principled and bad
leadership becomes catastrophic.
Let’s avert bloody revolution with intellectual revolution
“Prudent management of resources is very important; that this doesn’t
belong to you and you have to squander it is ridiculous. A few months
ago, I went to Federal Palace Hotel, a company invited me for a
programme and paid an advance for the hotel. The person that was
checking me in brought me into a room and I said, ‘this room is too big,
it is unnecessary.’
“When I told the man I wanted a smaller room, the man said, ‘smaller
room, but madam you are not paying!’ I said even if I’m not paying I
still have to be sensible. He said, ‘you see if we young people are
hearing this kind of thing we will be happy.’ He said, ‘do you know that
a particular government person used four parastatals and somebody to
book rooms and he had five bookings. I said what did the person do with
five bookings? He said he checked in five different girls in each room
and our young people are watching. We don’t want a revolution in this
country because a violent revolution will kill the innocent with the
guilty; we prefer intellectual revolution as we are having today.
“I want to appeal to the National Assembly to look into this
indigene-settler issue. How can we establish a system where there is so
much bitterness and people don’t belong? Leadership is important and
this time around the National Assembly has to do something. We are
running out of time. If we don’t do something and anything comes up,
like the Arab Spring, it will consume all of us.”
The leader that Nigeria needs – Utomi
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| Prof Utomi |
Speaking on the importance of leadership, Utomi said we need credible
leaders because “we live in a world full of problems and to solve the
problems we need leaders that will galvanize energies that are
generously given to people to solve these problems.
“One of the biggest troubles in Nigeria is that we refuse to accept
that we do not know. There is a grave danger in this country of people
using being able to tar roads as being a good leader. We have been so
debased that we see one mile of asphalt and we get excited.
When I left this country to go to school in the 70’s Nigeria won gold
medals in road construction. When I returned in 1982, I traveled from
Lagos to Benin toll gate in two hours 40 minutes, where are
those roads? Because of failure of leadership, yesterday’s
infrastructure do not exist anymore. So, leadership is much more than
being able to tar roads.”
We need IT-compliant leaders – Stan-Ekeh
Chairman of the Nigeria Leadership Summit, Chief Leo Stan Ekeh, said
that Nigeria needed an entire generation of 21st century leaders who are
technology-driven and sophisticated to move forward. According to him,
the world of technology has made the world a global village and opened
up an avalanche of opportunities for citizens.
However, if the leaders did not understand the digital revolution
taking place around the world it would be difficult to engage a society
in this new direction, he noted and urged the youths to seek out digital
leaders to guarantee the country’s future in the 21st century.
“In the 21st century, don’t support a leader who is not digitally
driven because this is a century of digital emancipation,” he urged.
Devt: Let’s engage lawmakers more – Ihedioha
Also, Deputy Speaker Ihedioha, who was represented by Chairman, House
of Representatives Committee on Banking and Currency, Hon Jones
Onyeneri, promised that the National Assembly would study the communiqué
of the summit as soon as it is ready in an effort to make necessary
legislative amendments for the progress of Nigeria.
Development -oriented educurriculum a must —Bruce
Ben Murray-Bruce used the summit to canvass for a shift in government policy in the education system.
Ben Bruce
He said that our education curriculum was designed for a World that
had long passed away. “What we need now are educated and fully trained
scientists, engineers, and developers.”
He took a swipe at leaders that provide motorcycles and tricycles as
forms of transportation in the 21st century, insisting that those
methods of transportation were over 100 years old and that Nigeria
should be moving forward and not backwards.
We must be committed to free and fair elections – Ben Obi
On his part, Senator Ben Obi stressed the need for credible elections
to produce credible leaders. Using the recent Edo and Ondo States’
governorship elections to elaborate the President Jonathan
administration’s commitment to free and fair elections, he encouraged
the youth to maintain their confidence in the system to deepen democracy
and improve on the polity.
Let’s make merit, qualification bases of leadership growth – Obiozor
Ambassador George Obiozor said that “Nigeria is the only country in
the World where merit and qualification were not determinants for
leadership or career progress. Warning that the nation faces serious
risks if she maintained this position, he directed the youth to take
their destiny into their hands by insisting on a new kind of leadership
that will bring back merit and achievement as core values of national
development.
Don’t kill our dream – Youths
A major highlight of the two-day summit was the “don’t kill my dream”
segment handled by students of secondary schools in Lagos which
included Queens College, West Minster College, Kings College, Dowen
College, Meadow Hall, and Coroner College.
The presentation from the children brought tears to the eyes of many
in the hall, as they each outlined the problems with the Nigerian
leadership and appealed to the leaders to have a change of heart so that
they could still hope to live productive and fulfilled lives in future.
