Innocent Okonkwo
24 October 2008
Lagos — CHAIRMAN of Senate Committee on power, Senator Nicholas Ugbane has blamed Nigeria's underdevelopment on bad leadership.
He said most of the country's leaders were self-centred, unpatriotic and reckless, adding that they were insincere to the legacies of the nation's forefathers.
Ugbane disclosed this recently during the inaugural lecture of Anthony Cardinal Okogie Foundation at St. Agnes Catholic Church, Maryland, Lagos.
Ugbane who represented the Senate President, David Mark spoke on "Good governance as a roadmap for social, political and economic development."
He lamented the abundant human and natural resources committed to no use, while leaders were busy looting the treasury, noting that Nigeria was far behind in global development indices.
Ugbane urged leaders to emulate the selflessness of the nation's forefathers.
"One wonders what the situation would have been if our forefathers who fought and die for this country were greedy and insensitive to the plight of the electorate who are now living below poverty level," he said.
Ugbane said it was lamentable that Nigeria was still a crawling adult at the age of 48, adding that such unfortunate development called for sober relection.
He further noted that only good governance could translate the country's human and natural resources into social, political and economic development.
Pointing the way forward, Ugbane said the nation's democratic process could only be accelerated through some corrective measures.
Such measures, he said, include qualification of candidates for election.
"Political parties that are custodians of organisation and selection of candidates for election should evolve a franchinse that would give voters the oportunity to pick candidate who is educated, technically qualified, God fearing, compassionate and comeptent," he said.
"People oriented choice; The electorate should participate in determining the political affairs of their own. The legal system governing the electoral body should make it autonomous, impersonal and impartial.
"Providing a level playing field for contending candidates full participation of observers, monitors and the media, proper funding of campaign and prompt announcement of the choice of candidate," he said.
Eradication of thuggery and godfatherism and attitudinal change of elected leaders and fear of God were also listed as requirement for good governance and meaningful social, political and economic development.
Okogie had in his address said that leadership has its value in service, adding that whoever would be the first should serve others.
He said leadership without integrity was useless.
"Integrity makes the people to trust their leaders, without that leadership is useless. If you are entrusted with a little, you will be entrusted with much. David graduated from killing a bear to killing a lion then to killing a giant. No one is left out of leadership because we are all leaders in our own right," he said.
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