SAN FRANCISCO, October 16, (THEWILL) – Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Umar Na’Abba has noted that President Muhammadu Buhari, his predecessors, Olusegun Obasanjo, Umar Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan and other political office holders within the last 18 years were not ready for leadership when the mantle fell on them.
This was as he identified accidental leaders as the bane of Nigeria, stressing that it has brought about trial and error in governance and also kept the country in political, economic and social doldrums.
The ex-lawmaker, who made this observation in Abuja while speaking at the 2016/2017 matriculation and fellowship endowment ceremony of the National Institute for Legislative Studies, NILS, regretted that few politicians have hijacked leadership recruitment process in the country.
“Circumstances at hand or situations on ground have, to a large extent, over the years determined who and who were elected into office in Nigeria as presidents since 1999 as against the level of preparedness on the part of the leaders in terms of clear vision and programmes,” he said.
Na’Abba stated that rather than prepared and vision-driven leadership, as in most other democracies of the world, Nigeria had been governed by persons who had the rein of leadership on a platter.
He called for “regular tutorials” for political leaders at all levels and for more Nigerians to participate in politics with a view to opening up the political space.
His words, “I believe that not just the legislature, every arm of government that is serving the purpose of governance must invest in exposing democracy to the people. It is a sad commentary on our political life that today, recruitment into leadership has been subverted by a few politicians because they deny Nigerians opportunity to contest elections and achieve their aspirations through the systematic appropriation of political parties to themselves.
“These politicians have stopped the growth of democracy. And it is true that unless democracy is allowed to grow, we cannot achieve the desired political growth, we cannot achieve the desired economic growth and we can also not achieve the desired social growth. And that is why we are still in political, economic and social doldrums. We have been having successive accidental leaders since 1999.
“It is time for us to begin to understand that the more participation Nigerians enjoy in politics, the more political development we attain. And consequently, economic and social development.
“We have been advocating that tutorials must be taking place on a continuous basis for stakeholders in democracy from the local governments to the states. What is sad today is that most of those who hold positions at the executive level of our political parties cannot distinguish the duties, functions and distinction between and among our political institutions. So, with this lack of knowledge, it is almost impossible for them to understand the kind of people that should serve at various levels.”
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