A major problem facing many African nations is simply that of bad leadership. This malaise has continued to stagnate developmental strides that the continent could attain because of the failure to have purposeful, selfless, and visionary leaders. This issue became subject of radio discussion by panelists of academics, researchers, and media experts. According to them, patriotic and dedicated African leaders must move the continent to greater heights without further. For Dr. Isaiah Ayedun, who is a lecturer at the Protestant University of West Africa, Port Novo, Benin Republic, the selfish disposition of some African leaders over the years had negated the lofty objectives of the South-South cooperation, which was meant to promote and strengthen collective self-reliance among developing countries.
He said South-South countries had not achieved this objective and called for quality leaders with a good vision and mission to develop the continent. “African countries have not achieved these objectives, they just have it on paper. Even in the area of technology, we are not there yet”, he said. Dr. Ayedun noted that there was no African country that was not suffering from corruption and insecurity because of the prevalent of the issues. He said if leaders were able to manage the available resources and implement policies that would boost the economy, it would attract foreign investors, reduce the rate of unemployment, and drastically reduce the crime rate. Dr. Ayedun blamed the problem facing many African countries to bad governance traceable to poor leadership.
To allow for the emergence of true leaders, there is the need for the complete overhaul of the nation’s electoral system, to pave way for good governance. The analysts argued that Nigeria needs the re-engineering of its voting system, urging Nigerians to have a change of attitude towards doing the right thing. On his part, a former member of the Ogun State House of Assembly, Hon. Johnson Olu-Fatoki, said everyone has a role to play in ensuring that Nigeria becomes great, noting that governments at all levels needed to discharge their duties as expected of them by Nigerians. “We are building individuals rather than building institutions,” he said. The former lawmaker said Nigerians are naturally obedient, adding that what was lacking is leadership. Hon. Olu-Fatoki also called for political restructuring and proper resource control, which would yield good results.
Meanwhile, a former Director of Operations at the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Mr. Eddy Aina said the relationship between the federal and state governments was dysfunctional and as such, contributing to crime in the country. He emphasised the need for the government to address the dysfunctionality within the system, stressing that citizens should be allowed to contribute their own quota so they can benefit from the desired change. “We should drop the idea of winner takes all and run the government of all-inclusiveness, to have a better Nigeria”, Mr. Aina added. In a similar vein, politicians have been advised to have a new mindset towards reducing corruption to the barest minimum and help develop the country’s democracy. This admonition was given by Prince Michael Oke, who lamented that in Nigeria, democracy is a government of the elites, for the elites, and by the elites because the masses were not being involved in the process of governance and that for the country to practice true democracy, politicians must be transparent and accountable.
“The elites have taken over our democracy, the government is only for them, their family, friends, and we can’t take it from them”, he said. He noted that Nigeria is not a failed state, but the government has not delivered democracy to the people as expected. He said Nigerians were not enjoying democracy, saying there is total injustice around and that the government had placed the judiciary under its control. Prince Oke explained that the same set of people that have been running the affairs of the country since independence are still in government, adding that corruption had eaten so deep to the extent that people seem not to believe in the country anymore. “The judicial autonomy is not there, we are not having it right in terms of justice in the country”, he stated while supporting the review of the 1999 constitution, noting that there is no true federalism in the country.
Just as calls had been made for quality leaders on FUNAAB Radio 89.5FM,the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) Ogun State, Prof. Kolawole Salako, has urged the new executive members of the Student Union of the University FUNAABSU, to display responsible leadership and embrace dialogue in order to ensure peace and harmony in the academic community during the swearing-in ceremony of the 2020/2021 FUNAABSU leadership. The Vice-Chancellor noted that the student leadership must understand issues and embrace dialogue in order to take a more informed position on any matter. In summary, what Nigeria and indeed, Africa need to address the leadership deficits are the emergence of patriotic citizens willing to serve, mutual cooperation among nations, strong electoral process, taming of corruption, and more importantly, breeding of generation responsible youths leaders for our society.
