Former President Olusegun Obasanjo said the only way Nigeria’s socioeconomic and political situations can experience a positive shift is for those he described as “self-centred leaders” to leave the scene.
The elder statesman disclosed this at the Leadership Empowerment International Conference in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital on Saturday, August 17, 2024.
He was a Special Guest of Honour at the event where 25 distinguished Nigerians were conferred with honorary Doctorates in leadership by a South Africa-based Immanuel Theology Institute International in affiliation with Priesthood Leadership Development Initiative Inc.
Obasanjo stated that Nigeria has remained backwards in all development indices because of leadership deficit, suggesting that the present crops of leaders occupying offices at all levels of governance must loosen their hold on the country to entrench progress.
The former military head of state said Nigeria currently bears the plague of self-centred leaders who are deficient in knowledge, bereft of understanding and demonstrating a brand of leadership that doesn’t see service as the centrepiece for development.
Obasanjo called on Nigerians to endeavour to seek an end to the culture of enthroning transactional leaders as against transformational leaders who will prioritise the delivery of good governance.
“There is no end to leadership and service to your community until you breathe the last. And you can never be too old to be a leader and to give something to the community in which you lead and serve as a leader, to serve your state, your country, the continent and the world,” he said.
“And if you ask me in one word, what is the bane of Nigeria today? I will not think about it twice. I will say it is leadership. Leadership that is self-centred, leadership that is a deficit of knowledge and understanding and leadership that does not see service as the centrepiece of what leadership is all about.
“If we can get the leadership right, we will get all other things right. This is what LEIC is doing that is commendable and very good. We must encourage and inculcate good leadership into every level of our national life Continue>,” the former President added.
