From Okwe Obi, Abuja
A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara has attributed the slow pace of development of the country to the appointment of loyal followers into positions of authority rather than those who are competent.
Dogara, who spoke at the official unveiling of Lead Generation Initiative (LGI), yesterday in Abuja, equally blamed lack of good leadership training on the country’s system of education which he said was structured to produce workers and not leaders.
“The problem I have seen is that leadership does not have futoes; leadership; there is no known rational process of processing the character of those we want to put in position of authority.
“Before we put a person in in leadership position the that comes to our mind is, “is he loyal rather than is the person capable of doing the work? This is triumph of loyalty over competence and the loyalty we talk about in Nigeria is actually sycophancy.”
“If we want to have competent leaders we must restructure to bring in innovations and leadership training.
Remodelling our education system to prioritize innovations and training of leaders who can actually serve as agents for social change and actual development.”
Meanwhile, Niger State Governor, Abubakar Bello, stressed that it bad leadership would continue unless competent and charismatic leaders delve into politics to correct the anomalies.
“The desired leadership we need will take a while because in 1998 when the military began the democratic process many of the competent people including myself didn’t believe and stayed away and now they have amassed resources and penetrated the rural areas that it has made it very difficult to remove them the system.”
Bello advised the youths to identify with their wards or unit so that when the time comes to pick people to serve they could be considered without strong opposition from party chieftains.
“My appeal to the youths is regardless of your religion, gender or age do not forget forget your base as it will help the head to pick you to serve.”
Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Sunday Dare, said: “We demand our youths to be educated, diciplined and determined. Government must play its role ; our youths must be ready to step into the arena, must be ready to make sacrifices.
“Government must invest in the youths and not just empowerment.
“it is not just the future that belongs to the youths but the present because we know of their innovations and capabilities. We will tell the story of our youths in a positive way to the nation, Africa and the world.”
The Chairman Board of Trustees, and a member representing Iseyin/Itesiwaju/Kajola/Iwajowa Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Shina Abiola-Peller, noted that he believes this is a new Dawn for Nigerian youths.
“I believe it is a new dawn and I believe the era where the voice of the young people in Nigeria will be heard has come. Opportunity meets preparedness; 2023 will give us a clear opportunity to get it right because an incumbent President will not be contesting.”