Akume, Suswan, others blame Nigeria’s woes on lack of intentional leadership
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Sen. George Akume and Sen. Gabriel Suswan have blamed Nigeria’s problem on lack of intentional leadership.
They shared this view with other eminent Nigerians at the official launch of three books: Beyond Ethnic Grievance; The English Language and its Disconnects; and Leadership: Leading Africa out of Chaos written by Prof. Iyorwuese Hagher’ at the weekend in Abuja.
Unveiling the book, the book Chief launcher, Sen. George Akume, enumerated patience, competence, humanness, ability to take strategic decisions as qualities of a good leader that are missing in present leadership of Africa that requires urgent attention to be addressed.
The SGF, who was represented by his Special Assistant on technical matters, Babatunde Bolaji Bennett, called for a review of English language as a lingua franca with a view to adopting a more united and acceptable official language for the country.
On the communal crisis between the Jukun and Tiv tribes in Benue and Taraba, he said successive administrations of the states had made frantic efforts to restore peace in the area and called for a scientific solution to the crisis.
‘‘The issues of climate change, it’s fast narrowing the usable land in our own country. So, perhaps some of the tribal crisis we’re having, some of the intercommunal crisis we’re having here, they need to consider the ecological aspect of it. It may just be as a result of the shrinking usable ecosystem, and then we are all fighting.
‘‘From the north, advancing towards the middle belt, from the south as a result of sea level rise, advancing towards the middle belt. If we all get there, we definitely have to fight for ownership.
‘‘So perhaps government will have to start looking at this dimension also, to carry out a proper study, to see what we can do. Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Environment, the National Climate Change Commission, the Great Green Wall, we need to sit down. The government need to sit down and look at the issue of communal clashes from the angle of science, so that we can look for solutions, quick solutions, scientific solutions to be able to stop our people from killing each other.
‘‘Behind the scene, you know that the issue of land is dwindling, the issue of available land for use, available land for grazing and so on. So we should stop fighting each other and try to sit at the table scientifically and properly. So this is important.’’
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In his remarks, a former Governor of Benue State, Sen. Gabriel Suswan called for revaluation of the countries value system and leadership style.
Sen. Suswan, who relished the Nigerian experience in the 70s and 80s said her fore contemporaries like Brazil, Venezuela and Indonesia and South Korea had all left Nigeria behind a third world country due to absence of intentional leadership.
‘‘Well, the author has been in leadership for quite some time, and the books he has written aptly apply to our current situation in Nigeria now. What he’s trying to do is to direct the country for us to reevaluate our value system,
what has pinned us down, why we can’t develop’’.
While lamenting that Nigeria is almost at the point of precipice of a failed society, he called for introspection on what is leading the country into the negative direction, I insisting that young ones must be given a new orientation about the nation’s value system and cultural dos and dons.
In his address, the Author of the books, Prof. Iyorwuese said he was motivated to write the three books because of suffering of the common and rural Nigerians occasioned by bad leadership.
‘‘Our rural people are suffering, there’s too much poverty in the land. We need leaders who will look at the plight of the Nigerians and become very angry and not sit comfortably with pecks on the face to be complacent because they are receiving a lot of money from the public offers and loading it over the people.
‘‘I have said in these books that it is not enough for a country to claim that it is democratic. Democracy itself is oppressive itself, it’s a government of the majority. So, the majority can oppress.
‘‘We need to define what type of democracy we have. It’s not a single chief in the United States of America, because the nature of the republic, the citizen is defined. Here, the citizen is less than the subject, it’s like a cattle.’’
‘‘I am saying that it’s time for us to have a large mindset, where we were all divided into various tribes and we were forced to belong to tribes. Now, we are all in our country. We must redefine how we are going to live together. Apart from that, we must resist ethnic racism or religious racism. Nigeria is the only country in the world where the number of Christians and Muslims in our country is almost the same. We can teach the world how we can accommodate two religions without having to fight each other.’’
In his address, the Author of the books, Prof. Iyorwuese said he was motivated to write the three books because of suffering of the common and rural Nigerians occasioned by bad leadership.
‘‘Our rural people are suffering, there’s too much poverty in the land. We need leaders who will look at the plight of the Nigerians and become very angry and not sit comfortably with pecks on the face to be complacent because they are receiving a lot of money from the public offers and loading it over the people.
‘‘I have said in these books that it is not enough for a country to claim that it is democratic. Democracy itself is oppressive itself, it’s a government of the majority. So, the majority can oppress.
‘‘We need to define what type of democracy we have. It’s not a single chief in the United States of America, because the nature of the republic, the citizen is defined. Here, the citizen is less than the subject, it’s like a cattle.’’
‘‘I am saying that it’s time for us to have a large mindset, where we were all divided into various tribes and we were forced to belong to tribes. Now, we are all in our country. We must redefine how we are going to live together. Apart from that, we must resist ethnic racism or religious racism. Nigeria is the only country in the world where the number of Christians and Muslims in our country is almost the same. We can teach the world how we can accommodate two religions without having to fight each other.’’
She calling a meticulous study of the author’s views of the books, particularly about tribal and communal crisis, he called on government to urgently implement the recommendations of the author in his books.
Earlier, one of the book reviewers, Prof. Rashidat Liman said the book, Beyond Ethnic Grievance Between Jukun and Tiv people remains the key to ending the unending communal crisis engulfing the people over the years.
Pro. Liman, who X-rayed several efforts to end the communal war, postulated that ethnic racism is the biggest threat to Nigerian’s unity.
Other speakers at the book launch also aligned with the previous speakers in calling for a paradigm shift in the current leadership style that has empoverished the nation and kept her backward as a third world country.
