June 12: Nigeria needs sincere leaders to grow – Elder statesman
An elderstates man, Dr Bulama Mali-Gubio says Nigeria needs sincere leadership to grow and attain its full potential as the giant of Africa.
Mali-Gubio who is also the spokesperson for the Borno Elders Forum, stated this in Maiduguri on the 30th anniversary of the annulment of June 12 presidential election.
He said that Nigeria’s approach to leadership was wrong, saying that the primary goal of many leaders in the country was self-enrichment.
“Leading a country involves making policies and finding solutions to problems, ensuring stability of the polity, and guiding the country to prosperity.
“But a large number of Nigerian leaders lacked the vision, passion, and the character to effectively govern and deal with the economic situation.
“In order to achieve the Nigeria of our dreams, we as citizens must first change our values, attitudes and orientation.
“This is because values are the building blocks of national development and no nation can achieve its developmental aspirations unless her citizens embrace and espouse the right values and attitudes,” he said.
Mali-Gubio blamed Nigeria’s socio-economic problems on lack of value orientation.
“Like other nations of the world, Nigeria has always had its own set of values which are expected to shape behaviors and drive the process of development.
“These values, also known as national ethics are enshrined in chapter two, Section 23 of the 1999 constitution (as amended). They include discipline, integrity, dignity of labour, social justice, religious tolerance, self reliance and patriotism.
“These core values were greatly cherished by traditional Nigerian society and they formed the basis for the unity, stability and cohesion of our society.
“Because our values were right, the generality of our people exhibited positive attitudes of love of neighbor, commitment to hard work, team and community spirit, love of country, respect for elders and constituted authorities, respect for the sanctity of human life, among others,” he said.
Mali-Gubio added:”Unfortunately, our value system has degenerated over the years, the family institution has collapsed. Community spirit has given way to individualism while indolence has taken the place of hard-work.
“Merit is now sacrificed on the altar of mediocrity, cronyism and nepotism. Wealth, no matter the source, is now celebrated in place of honesty and integrity.
“It is clear that no nation can make any meaningful progress in the face of these social vices arising from negative values and dysfunctional attitudes.”
He said that the advent of internet which made the world a global village, had further eroded Nigeria’s cultural values and identities of the people.
He said that Nigerian youths were daily fed with values that were at variance with their culture, making them to internalise strange and alien cultural traits.
“Nigerian society has become a testing ground for all forms of violent crimes disseminated to our youths through a deliberate and sustained programme of indoctrination, ethno-religious militia insurgency engaging in mindless destruction were brought upon us.
“Since the beginning of the Fourth Republic on May 29 1999, Nigeria has continued to struggle with the delivery of democratic governance and democracy dividend – social welfare, justice, equity, and equal access to resources and power.
“After a decade of the current epoch, there is the need to identify concrete challenges to democratic governance in Nigeria with a view to contextualizing the core factors that continues to obfuscate democratic governance.
“A reflection on the above calls to question certain issues that stands as challenge to democratic governance in Nigeria,” he said.
NAN/N.O
