Peter Obi blames Nigeria’s woes on leadership failure

A former governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi, on Thursday said the trouble with Nigeria since independence was a failure of leadership.

Obi stated this while speaking at the formal inauguration of the National Executive Council of Nigeria Ethnic Nationalities Youth Leaders Council (NENYLC).

He spoke on the theme, ‘National Development: Role of the Nigeria Youths’.

According to him, leadership inadequacy contributed to worsening the country’s problems, from widening the parochial divisions among the citizens to the plundering of the treasury.

He, therefore, called on the youths to take over the ownership of their country, stressing that their docility in the affairs of the nation contributed to their bane.

The former vice-presidential candidate maintained that countries like Morocco and Bangladesh were able to conquer their problems because of the direction and examples provided by their leaders.

He condemned the practice of money politics by some politicians in the country, stressing that only competent leadership can unite the nation.

He said, “Don’t think you are going to get anything out of incompetent leadership no matter how it benefits you personally. It will worsen the entire country and eventually worsen you.

“Let Nigeria’s next leadership from the local governments to the state and federal levels be people who have the capacity to govern; people who have integrity and managers of resources; people who know where to invest. The biggest assets of a country are human beings that live in that country. Nigeria as a nation has not invested in its people.

“It is good we have some physical infrastructure. But you cannot make physical infrastructure without investing in human development. Elect those that can invest in you so that we can have a progressive country that can help everybody.”

He said Nigerians must resist the temptation by enemies of collective progress, as well as the influence of money bags as Nigeria prepares for the 2023 general elections.

In his remarks, former President Goodluck Jonathan, urged the youths to pursue the unity of the nation as the only condition for Nigeria’s continuous development and progress.

Represented by Mr. Labaran Makun, a former Minister of Information, Jonathan said: “If every Nigerian is peaceful the nation will be peaceful. Peace is not necessarily the absence of threat, it is not necessary that everybody is comfortable or there is no problem, but it is the condition precedence of national and, human developments.

“I am calling on the youths of Nigeria, particularly from the Northern part of Nigeria, I am appealing to us, let us do all we can through dialogue, through conferencing and discussion let our nation be at peace again.

“If the youths of Nigeria prepare and say nobody will ever use them again to disrupt peace during elections there will be peace all over Nigeria on election day. Let us make sure that the coming election the youths join hands together to ensure that 2023 is even peaceful than previous elections.”

In his remarks, the President-General of NENYLC, Terry Obieh, said the only way forward for Nigeria was for all stakeholders to collectively build the country.

“We are currently inundated with the horrible news that corruption has eaten deep into our fabrics, bad governance, constitutional and political attrition,” he noted.