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From Molly Kilete, Abuja
The former Chief of Defence Staff(CDS), General Martin Luther Agwai, has attributed the lack of a functional system in the country to prepare people for leadership position as the reason why the country has produced bad leaders.
He said a situation where every Tom, Dick and Harry wakes up from their slumber and vie for the position of president without proper preparation should no longer be tolerated by Nigerians.
Agwai, made this known in a keynote address he delivered at Nigeria’s National Unity in the buildup to the 2023 General Elections, organized by the Alumni Association of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (AANI), in Abuja.
He said the non preparedness of such persons who do not have the progress of the country at heart was the reason was bedeviled with insecurity, instability and the economic hardship the country the people are going through.
In his presentation titled “National Unity and its Multi-Dimensional Challenges”, the former CDS, called on Nigerians not to allow themselves to her fooled anymore by politicians who have succeeded in using their positions to cause disunity in the country.
He said “My recommendations is that our future leaders should be groomed ,we should start finding a method or way of selecting who becomes our leader and must we practice democracy in the way it is today or should we look else where to see how we can have an inclusive democracy,to see how we can select our leaders that we can be comfortable that have grown up from the grass root that we are comfortable for them to lead us .
Continuing, General Agwai said “Let me take you to the military where I am most comfortable. There is what is known as the ‘end take’. The end take should be established prior to execution. If you want to be president, governor, local government chairman, anything that you want. How long will you stay there? If it is four years, you outline what you want to do in four years and people can hold you accountable. But if you get there and start fumbling and giving excuses saying that man for 20 years did construct a road, you are not prepared for leadership.
“Do we have a system where we prepare our future emerging leaders? Does anybody just stumble to become a leader? You just wake up and suddenly you want to become a president? You just wake up from sleep and you want to lead 200 million people. It is not done.”
Speaking on security, Gen Agwai, who said Nigeria cannot develop without security however noted that the military cannot solve all Nigeria’s problems, adding that conflicts on its own was not bad but poor management by leaders was responsible for the crisis to continue.
“The truth is development without security is not possible and security without development is only temporary. There is a way we can develop this country with insecurity. I can tell you I have lost so much on my farm. When I left service in 2010, I went into farming, today I don’t have a pin on that farm.
“People look to the military to solve every problem, it is not possible. The military is not there to solve all of Nigeria’s problems. The job of the military is to look at the threats that we have like, militias, bandits, herders/ farmers clashes, IPOB, kidnapping etc. A lot of us want to be leaders but we don’t want the ship because it is too heavy,”.
“Conflicts are good,the only bad thing about conflict is if you can’t manage them and manage them well and I think that is the challenges in this part of the world and in this country and we are afraid of conflict no,there are conflicts that are wake up call for those in authority,there are conflicts that are wake up call even in the family,so we shouldn’t be scared so much about conflicts but what we should be scared of is if the leadership does not respond in time to the conflict then the conflict snowballs ,no more into conflict but even leading to war. We should as a people try to find how we unite”
Earlier in his address, the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, who is also chairman AANI Heritage Council, while noting the numerous security challenges in the country called on all to look inwards for solution.
He said “If anyone tells you that everything is well in this country he is telling you lies. We have said it so many times. We have said in front of Mr. President. Things are not normal, they are not okay.
“However, nobody can come from anywhere to solve our problems for us, nobody. It is not America, Britain or China. We must solve our problems because we know what our problems are and we have unique capacities to do that.”
In his address, the President of AANI, and former inspector general of police Mohammed Abubakar, said “Nigeria, like all countries of the world, is not immune to developmental challenges. Indeed we have had our own share of political, economic and social crises, occasioned by poor planning, inadequate management, lack of accountability, poor citizen participation and in particular, non implementation of robust policy frameworks and strategies to drive the critical sectors of the economy. This resulted in stunted economic growth which promoted poverty, unemployment and crimes that snowballed into insurgency, kidnappings and armed conflicts in many parts of the country. These misfortunes are threatening our unity, security, economy and all aspects of our daily lives.
Concerned over these anomalies, AANI decided to convene this conference whose composition cuts across diverse backgrounds, to interrogate the circumstances that led to this state of affairs and proffer realistic and workable recommendations and implementation strategies for a more united, peaceful and prosperous Nigeria.
The theme of the conference is ‘Nigeria’s National Unity in the build up to the 2023 General Elections’. As we approach the forth coming general elections, there is the urgent need to address all contentious issues and debilitating circumstances, in order to create an enabling environment for the orderly transfer of power that will deepen our democracy”.
