Director General of the Progressives Governors Forum, Salihu Lukman has attributed the major problem of leadership in Nigeria, on skewed inclination of nation building.
He says Visionary and purposeful leadership are expected to facilitate the emergence of nations, leveraging on strong national institutions, good governance, equity and justice, which enable everyone to fulfill their aspirations.
He believes Successful nations have common purpose and strong national bond especially when they’re created out of multiple ethnic and religious identities.
In his words, Mr Lukman says: “Presently, Everybody says there’s marginalisation, unfairness and injustice, but only in relation to group interests, predominantly ethnic. And Hardly, one finds any leader who is raising issues of marginalisation, unfairness and injustice not based on protecting the interests of groups they belong. Consequently, every problem of the country become interpreted based on group interests.
“But the question remains How can Nigeria manage it’s diversity and build confidence of citizens across every part of the country to have a sense of national belonging?, he queried
Salihu Lukman admittedly says this is one area, which all leaders in the country seems to have common approach defensively.
Mr Lukman is of the opinion that If the Nigerian nation is to be developed, there must be leaders who are broadminded enough to campaign for justice, equity and fairness beyond a particular group interests.
He says therefore, a major challenge of nation building in Nigeria revolves around how to produce a set of true national leaders.
As long as the determining factor in judging leaders is driven by the frustration that leaders are not meeting citizens’ expectations, prejudiced conclusions against them will be the case. What is it that need to be done to ensure that leaders meet citizens’ expectations?
No doubt, both President Buhari and APC must be held accountable, But when issues of accountability are reduced to interpreting challenges to mean evidence of failure, it can only re-enforce the conclusion that leaders are bad, which may make it attractive for the campaign to remove leaders out of office, and Most times, the debate about changing leaders is influenced largely by the frustration of getting leaders to meet expectations of citizens.
He added that It is necessary Nigerians recognise that political parties are the most important democratic bodies to facilitate processes of nation building.
