Abuja — Nigerians have been urged to persevere in the face of the ongoing hardship and general insecurity in the country and use the coming elections in 2011 to put in the right leadership that will lift the country from the pangs of poverty.

The new national chairman of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), Eng. Larry Esin, speaking recently in Abuja berated the country's political leaders for their failure to impact positively on the lives of Nigerians in the last 10 years.

He regretted that 10 years into the democratic dispensation, Nigerians are still saddled with the problem of poor power supply, inadequate healthcare system, lack of potable water, lack of good roads, among other social amenities.

"Nigeria is a paradox. So enviably endowed with great human and natural resources, yet so beleaguered in her struggle to attain a livable standard of socio-economic and political development.

"Who would have believed that in the 49th year of our independence, Nigeria would boast of the worst records in infant mortality, electricity supply, pipe borne water and water borne diseases, insecurity of lives and property, life expectancy and gender inbalance.

"Where and how did we go wrong? While some may blame military intervention, I believe that we the political class should take a good part of the blame. The truth is that the leadership of this potentially great country has failed the Nigerian people; especially in the last 10 years", he said.

Esin blamed the country's failure on the leaders, noting that instead of tackling the problem of underdevelopment, the party in power is pre-occupied with its size.

"The bane of our development has undoubtedly been our leadership. Where a ruling party is more interested in its size and not in the quality of the solutions that it brings to bear on the challenges facing the Nigerian nation, Nigeria becomes a country of declining productivity and per capital income; declining quality of education; crumbling infrastructure; fading respect of the international community; untold hardship on the Nigerian citizen and breakdown of law and order", he said.

According to him, "the so called biggest party in Africa squandered the goodwill of the greatest era of prosperity this country has known in recent times; and caused a slippage in our intellectual and moral strength."