Executive Director, African Heritage Institution, Afriheritage, a non-governmental organisation, Professor Ufo Okeke-Ukadike, has attributed Nigeria’s socio-economic woes, especially insecurity to bad leadership.
Professor Ufo stated this in a remark during the organisation’s Big Ideas Podium, with a theme: “Trend and Dynamics of Armed Banditry: Making Sense of the Problem,” in Enugu, jointly organised by the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), said the communal clashes, agitations, armed banditry and the deadly Fulani herdsmen killings are signs of bad leadership.
He said Nigerian leaders owe the people the responsibility to explain why Nigerians cannot carry out their daily activities without fear of insecurity.
He stated further that with good leadership, things would have taken a different dimension but because of laxity on the part of leaders, things seem to be falling apart.
Ufo said: “We have been having communal clashes, Niger Delta militancy but never the magnitude of what we are seeing today. They have failed to show good leadership in this country. With good leadership, things would have taken a different shape and that is part of the tragedy.
“Good leadership provides opportunity for people to change and it enhances peace and sustainable development,” he said. He stated further that, “Nigerian current leadership owe the people the responsibility to explain to Nigerians why average citizens cannot carry on with their already difficult lives without fear about personal safety and basic human security concerns.”
He lamented that many years after independence, Nigerians failed to experience peace and progress, adding that “in schools, churches, people are being killed,” adding that the essence of the podium was to seek how Nigeria could move on without fear of insecurity.
Speaking at the occasion, the executive director, Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), Abuja, Dr. Bakut T. Bakut, represented by Andy Nkeneme, lamented that armed banditry and insurgence have dealt a deadly blow to Nigeria’s progress as a nation.
“Armed banditry in the scope and manner of its current operation has become one of the biggest threats to safety and security in Nigeria, especially in the North-east and North west part of the country. On daily basis, the media keep churning out scary news of kidnapping, killings and invasion of people’s homes and bombing of security posts and government infrastructure.”
The keynote speaker, DG, African Network for Peace Building, Ghana, Dr. Chukwuemeka Eze, who spoke through zoom, said armed banditry and other insurgents in the country cannot be solved by use of force but good governance and provision of employment for the youth.
