A Nigerian scientist based in Singapore, Dr Jonathan Obaje, has called for strategic measures aimed at promoting leadership development in Nigeria.
Obaje made the call on Monday at the New Nigeria Conference with the theme: “Birthing the Nigeria that works; the culture, the structure, and the leadership needed.”
The conference was put together on a virtual platform by the Association of Allied Professionals for Economic and Infrastructure Development, an association of Nigerian professionals abroad, to mark Nigeria’s 61st independence anniversary.
According to him, good leadership is key to nation-building.
He identified the pillars of successful leadership as personal integrity, knowledge, vision, followership, and external dynamics.
“In a multi-ethnic nation like ours, we need to adopt modern models for sustainable leadership, to promote meaningful growth of our country.
“We must develop models that are suitable for people.
”We have not been able to come up with sustainable leadership in multi-ethnic societies, which is needed to foster the growth and development of the fatherland.
“Nigerians must begin to think about proper ways to ensure sustainable leadership and develop leadership structures, based on personal qualities, followership, and external dynamics,” Obaje said.
Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, a former Presidential Candidate under the Young Progressives Party (YPP), said a strategic approach through social engineering would help advance the ongoing nation-building process.
Moghalu, also a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), identified the media and education sectors as important areas that could be used to achieve the desired goals.
“Although we have ethnic consciousness all over the world, such as displaced patriotism, particularly in Nigeria.
“There is also the issue about corruption, which has caused our nation to lose 1trillion dollars of public resources since independence.
“There is the need for rethinking our national culture and consciousness.
”It is something that must start from top-to-bottom, to change the behaviour and mindset of Nigerians,” he said.
He urged both the federal and state governments to champion the cause of reorienting Nigerians, saying there was a need to know “where we are coming from” to make meaningful progress.
Also speaking, Dr Tope Fasua, former Presidential Candidate, Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party (ANRP), said although there was no perfect system of government. “there is hope for Nigeria”.
Fasua, an economist and Founder of Global Analytics, said: “There has never been a perfect system, nor do you have a perfect constitution, which is one thing that Nigerians must note.
“There is no perfection anywhere; there is a reason we are in a presidential system of government and it is very important for us to know, especially young people.
“Although democracy is the system of government that we require, the structure has to be a strategic and dynamic one that can meet modern democratic needs.” (NAN)
