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Ekiti Council of Elders has lamented the growing culture of corruption, wasteful governance, and declining public accountability in Nigeria.
The council warned that the country’s political leadership is increasingly normalising dishonesty at the expense of national development.
The Secretary of the Council’s Board of Trustees, Dr. Bayo Orire, lamented the distortion of public service values, saying Nigeria had reached a situation where integrity was often mistaken for foolishness, while politicians who resisted corruption were perceived as lacking political sophistication.
Dr Orire raised these issues in Ado-Ekiti during a press conference heralding the second edition of the Joel Babatola Annual Lecture Series themed: “The paradox of nationhood: The Struggle for reinventing Nigeria’s security architecture” organised by the council.
He regretted that public office had increasingly become synonymous with wealth accumulation rather than service delivery, arguing that the excessive cost of governance, extravagant lifestyles of political officeholders and poor execution of public projects had continued to undermine development.
On the ongoing decentralisation of security structures in the country, Orire commended President Bola Tinubu’s efforts to spread military and other security institutions across different parts of Nigeria, describing the move as strategically sound and beneficial to national security.
He said the concentration of critical security infrastructure in one location could expose the country to devastating consequences in the event of an attack, stressing the need for geographical distribution of security institutions.
According to him, decentralisation would also promote local participation, economic empowerment and broader opportunities for communities to contribute to national security.
Orire also endorsed the establishment of state police, describing it as a timely response to Nigeria’s evolving security challenges after years of growing demand for a decentralised policing structure.
He said the increasing acceptance of community vigilante groups and local security outfits had also provided an opportunity for communities to participate more actively in protecting lives and property.
Speaking on the significance of the lecture, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Ekiti Council of Elders, Olufemi Adewumi, said Nigeria’s security challenges and fragile national unity, fuelled by mutual distrust, religious differences and ethnic divisions, made the need for responsible leadership more urgent.
Adewumi said the council, comprising individuals of high integrity and unblemished patriotism, was committed to rescuing the country from its present challenges and defending national unity, in honour of the sacrifices of past heroes, including Chief Joel Eyinafe Babatola, a revered national figure of Ekiti extraction.
Babatola was the Minister of Home Affairs and Information in the Western Region of Nigeria under Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola during the First Republic in 1960.
