Former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega Sunday said Nigerians belong to the category of the “unfortunate citizens of the world.”
He said that this is due to the fact that the country’s leadership, “though in the context of a civil democratic dispensation, leaves much to be desired.”
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Jega stated this during the pre-Ramadan lecture organised by the University of Lagos Muslim Alumni (UMA) with the theme, “Leadership Recruitment – The Missing Anchor in Our National Development.”
Jega, who was Chairman of the occasion, said Nigerian leaders lacked “a sustainable vision for our country’s development, selflessness in elective public leadership positions, competence and capacity to lead a country in the 21st century, and in terms of having an enlightened self-interest to galvanize and forge elite consensus on how to reposition, stabilize and develop the country on a sustainable basis.”
He stressed that leadership recruitment process is central to entrenching good governance and resolving “the poor governance.”
“We evidently have been recruiting and appointing/electing inappropriate leaders, quite often, round pegs in square holes, and undermining, rather than, strengthening our governance, democratic and development processes,” he said.
He stated that it is high time Nigeria addressed the crisis of leadership by improving the leadership recruitment process which must be done latest by the 2023.
Jega said, “It seems to me that the opportunity that representative democracy provides through the electoral processes, for the careful selection/election by citizens of those who would truly represent and take care of their collective interests and aspirations, is either not properly understood by our so-called politicians and citizens as voters, or are willfully ignored, or worse, deliberately undermined.
“With the terrible result that the electoral processes spew up and recycle most people in elected public offices who either bought, or fraudulently often violently stole the votes which put them into ‘elected’ and public leadership positions.
“They invariably achieve this, because the special purpose vehicle for getting into elections, namely the political parties, are captured by so-called ‘money bags’ , ‘godfathers ’ and powerful patrons, and they operate undemocratically to install clients and otherwise very unprepared and untrustworthy people into elective positions, which require thorough preparation, competence and trustworthiness.
“Second, in view of this, we need to enlighten, awaken and mobilize our citizens as voters, to understand the value of using the electoral process for the protection, defence and advancement of their human dignity, and then put it to good use, to elect into public governance and leadership positions tested and trusted people, known good people, who have requisite honesty, integrity, competence and selflessness and vision for actualization of collective aspirations for progress and development.”
In their separate lectures, the National Missioner and Chief Imam of Ansaruddeen Society of Nigeria, Imam Ahmad Abdulrahman and former Minister of Education, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili said the leadership recruitment process is faulty.
Imam Ahmad stressed the need to put enough safeguard in place to checkmate the Nigerian leaders and ease those not performing, saying, “Let there be mechanism to bring them to account.”
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