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 ofSahara 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.
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.
Donald Duke
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.
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
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.
Prof Utomi
“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.
Source: Vanguard
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