A senior lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos, Akoka, Dr. Olubunmi Ajibade has described bad leadership as the greatest challenge facing Nigeria.
Speaking to The Next Edition on Nigeria’s 60th Independence Anniversary, Ajibade noted that leadership problem was “the greatest disaster that has befallen Nigeria.”
According to him, “We have abundant human and natural resources, but we lack leaders who can harness these for the benefit of Nigerians. Nine out of every ten Nigerian leaders are selfish, greedy and corrupt. Both military and civilian rulers have always betrayed the confidence and trust of Nigerians.”
He noted that many countries with fewer resources than Nigeria have converted their disadvantages to opportunities. “Look at the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, South Korea, Brazil, etc. They have moved far ahead of Nigeria, though we were at almost the same level of development with them when we got Independence. But today, they have become economic giants. A major key to their breakthroughs is good leadership,” he added.
Ajibade further noted that “because we have failed to transform our potentials to tangible development, we are often not respected in the international community. Many countries wonder why majority of Nigerians suffer in the midst of plenty. They find it strange that a nation so blessed with huge resources is now derivisely described as the poverty headquarters of the world.”
The Mass Communication lecturer who described Nigeria’s situation as a paradox insisted that when the country gets good leaders, it will surmount most of its problems.
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Reeling out areas that the nation has failed to make progress in its 60 years of independence, Ajibade said: “Our areas of failure are many. They include poor management of the economy, insecurity, soaring crime rates, poor standard of public education, huge deficits in infrastructure, inability of government to fix electricity problem, food insecurity and unemployment.”
He however, posited that it has not all been bad. “I think the greatest achievement is that we are still standing together as one nation, despite all challenges that have threatened our unity.
We have also managed to keep the military out of power, in spite of bad leadership foisted on the nation by greedy politicians and their cronies.”
On the way forward, Ajibade said true federalism was the way to go. According to him, each federating unit should be allowed to grow at its own pace.
His words: “The country seemed to do better during the first republic when true federalism was practised. We should return to that arrangement and allow each region to develop and control its own resources. This will engender healthy competition among the federating units. It will also allow each region to spot good leaders in its own domain as it happened in the first republic.
“Each federating unit should be allowed to grow at its own pace, carefully exploiting its resources for the benefit of great majority of its people.”
For Dr. Ajibade, the year long celebration of the 60th Independence Anniversary as planned by the federal government, was nothing but a waste of resources that could be put to more meaningful use.
“The truth is that we have nothing to celebrate. What are we going to tell the world that we have achieved? Is it our education that is collapsing, our very bad roads, international airports that advertise the shame of our nation, thousands of innocent lives that have been water by terrorists, bandits, kidnappers, it what?
“Those who claim we should celebrate are the 5% opportunists who control more than 90% of the nations resources, which they acquired through fraudulent or corrupt practices,” he said.
