The former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Ghali Na’Abba, said on Tuesday that good leadership was one of the basic elements required to reposition Nigeria for a better future.
Na’Abba, representing the House of Representatives Forum as a delegate at the ongoing National Conference in Abuja, expressed concern that “the quality of leadership in this country is going down by the day”.
He said it was important for the drop in leadership quality to be addressed to ensure that Nigerians enjoyed the dividends of democracy.
He said: “Central to any effort to fix anything in this country is the question of leadership and by that I mean good leadership.
“More than at any other time, this country needs the best leadership that it can (have).
“Whatever we do here, no matter how good it is, unless we have the right kind of leadership, nothing good is going to happen in this country.
“The quality of leadership in this country is going down by the day and whatever we must do here we must design a situation, whereby no matter what, we end up with good leaders.
“The system through which and with which leadership is recruited in this country is gradually being bastardised.
“Because, it is believed that only in democracies that we can have good governance, a robust economy, fairness, equity and justice.
“We therefore need strong leadership, a leadership that is courageous, equitable and so on and so forth.”
The former speaker said that one of the ways to ensure good leadership was to allow for internal democracy.
He urged delegates to consider the issue of internal democracy in political parties as well as other spheres of life.
Similarly, Frank Nweke, the Director-General of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group, said as Nigeria was starting the journey of another centenary, it should assert itself in the comity of nations by ensuring good leadership.
Nweke, a former information minister, is also a delegate representing the Organised Private Sector at the confab.
He said: “In this second decade of Nigeria’s second century, we can have a new beginning but first we must mobilise a national consensus on a national development philosophy.
“It is such a clear development philosophy anchored on the importance of leadership as distinct from political authority that will guide the role and the place of both leaders and followers as they evolve in our polity.
“It is this philosophy that will help enable our leaders to understand the spiritual burden they bear as leaders and the cosmic responsibility imposed on them to cater for the 167 million people created by the almighty God in the country called Nigeria.
“Let us check and see that all through human history, the greatest progress in different countries have been achieved under the guidance of leaders who had a deep sense of personal awareness about their reason for being, a keen sense of foresight and great personal discipline and appreciation about the transient nature of human existence.”
Nweke urged Nigerian leaders to imbibe the qualities of good leadership to better the lot of Nigerians.
He emphasised that every action and inaction had consequences.
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