For the first time, President Umaru Yar’Adua on Thursday descended on the country’s leaders who apply power negatively to illegally acquire wealth and oppress other people, warning them of eternal consequences of their actions.

Identifying leadership as the greatest problem plaguing Nigeria, President Yar’Adua said leadership was not conferred on people because they had the opportunity to lead, but was rather earned and promised to launch a campaign to restore the virtues of good leadership to the country.

The president bared his mind when Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State presented him with the report of a one-day symposium on “A New Leadership Culture”, organized by the National Orientation Agency in collaboration with the Niger State Government in the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

“People must recognise the finite nature of such wealth, as well as the day of reckoning when the eternal consequences of oppression, abuse of office and trust of those they govern shall be visited on those who misuse such opportunities,” he stated.
Regretting that the concept of leadership had been bastardized in the country, Yar’Adua observed that people used leadership positions to show arrogance, oppress others and misappropriate resources meant for the generality of Nigerians instead of serving them as directed by God.

He emphasised that “the opportunity to lead in whatever capacity on its own does not confer leadership; instead, leadership is earned after the discharge of the responsibility honestly, sacrificially, and to the best of one’s ability. Only then can those beneficiaries of the service selflessly rendered recognise such a person as a leader.”

The president stressed the need for a serious national campaign on the concept of leadership and the futility of oppressors acquiring wealth through illegal means.
Anticipating that the campaign would attract many opponents, he, however, said the truth would always prevail and commended the governor of Niger State and the National Orientation Agency for the initiative.

Governor Babangida Aliyu, while presenting the report, said President Yar’Adua’s adoption of Servant-Leadership as a way of life was a marked departure from the increasing lack of the right attitude to leadership in the country.