Former Governors of Ekiti and Lagos States, Dr Kayode Fayemi and Akinwunmi Ambode, say Nigeria needs audacious and sacrificial leaders to rise beyond the current despondency, especially among youths.
They spoke on Nigeria’s leadership at the 2024 Leadership and Economic Summit and Unveiling of ST.RACHEAL’S People Consulting Limited in Lagos on Thursday night.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the theme of the event was “Economic Prosperity- Secrets of Audacious Leaders”.
In his remark, Fayemi, also a former Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), said that audacious leadership must be idealistic and determined about reforms that would meet people’s needs, and withstand pressures from the population who are usually resistant to change.
He said: “Leadership is sacrifice. We don’t treat leadership as sacrifice in Nigeria. We just have to do things differently if we want this country to go the right way.
“Otherwise, the time bomb is ticking, and I think we are going to run into a major problem if we don’t address this feeling of despondency particularly among the youths and people.
“We all must contribute to leadership to build a transformed society- it isn’t just the president and the governors.”
According to Fayemi, leadership means visionary ideas; solution-driven, people-centred agenda; effective planning, risk taking, courage of conviction and passion for making a fundamental difference in the society.
“Nigeria is not where we all have loved it to be. We will only get there if we all contribute our quota and not just sit back and expect change to happen.
“We must develop a sense of duty, justice, top-notched communication and passion for development as leaders. You cannot be a successful leader without ideas.
“In the South-West, we had a trajectory coming from the late sage Obafemi Awolowo and if you are going to make a difference, you have to follow that trajectory and do better for the people,” Fayemi said.
Stating the need for exemplary leadership, Fayemi said absence of this had led the nation to be suffering a huge deficit of trust and despondency among the people.
He identified the need for a reorientation of citizens about the much eroding value system, the sense of duties, responsibilities and obligations toward the development of the society.
“We seem to be concerned more about rights than about our responsibilities to this nation,” he said.
On subsidy removal, Fayemi, who was also a Minister of Mines and Steel Development, said that the removal was not the problem but the lack of planning to ameliorate the impact on the vulnerable, before the implementation.
Fayemi, a Visiting Professor at the African Leadership Centre, who noted the importance of successors in leadership, said without a good succession plan, all achievements would be short-lived.
Describing Nigerians as enterprising, Fayemi said that provision of basic infrastructural support, power, enabling environment and security would make the nation’s economy to bounce back.
He added: “We must recognise that leadership is not the title, it is not the office you occupy. Leadership is influence, it is what you do with it that is most important.”
Fayemi, said that Nigeria must resolve the question of the consensus on idea of Nigeria’ and the type of democracy to practice.
“This ‘winners take it all’ system is not going to take us anywhere. I think we need to change our electoral system to proportional representation.
“Everybody who has sizable votes should be in a government of national unity.
“In this case, we pull all resources and interest together with no one kicking at the collective interest. We will all have a stake in it and want it to succeed. Right now, that is not the situation,” he said.
Contributing, Ambode, who applauded the organisers and various speakers for proffering ways to change current tides in the country, said that the issue confronting Nigeria currently was more than fixing the foreign exchange rate.
“Right now, there is no way, with the kind of number that Nigeria commands, in 2050, we are going to be the third largest population in the world.
“There is no developed nation that will love you for these numbers or your potential for the future.
“We need home grown solution because these foreign direct investments, world bank, there is no way somebody outside will want you to prosper.
“Our problems are more fundamental than we trying to increase the valuable monetary sense of naira.
“We should centre everything about policies and efforts on production. If we don’t produce, we cannot reduce that forex rate,” the former Lagos State governor said.
He said that everything being done, whether in the health, agriculture, or defence should centre on production of goods and services.
Emphasising economic and political diplomacy, Ambode said that the nation must also find a way to deal with internal saboteurs and foreign influences undermining Nigeria’s growth and potential.
On what he called “local direct investments” as against foreign direct investments, the former governor said that Nigeria had people with resources to improve the economy.
“Rather than look outside, we need to come together, think vertically and horizontally and solve these problems together. We have to all agreed there is a common challenge and have the political will,” he said.
In his keynote address, a Chief Economist at Development Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Joseph Nnanna, who spoke virtually said that insecurity, exchange rate, currency misalignment had cost high inflationary measures, saying “Nigeria’s economic growth has been slow and sluggish”.
In his remark, Prof. Ndubisi Nwokoma, a Professor of Economics and Director, Centre for Economic Policy Analysis and Research, University of Lagos, recommended improved security and structural reforms to fight inflation by improving production and removing or easing supply chain disruption.
Nwokoma said that the nation must address oil theft, cost of governance reduction, expanding agricultural spending, fiscal policy to address the cost pushed inflation as well as monetary policy to restore price stability.
Earlier, the Visionnaire of the St Racheal’s People Company, Mr Akinjide Adeosun, noted that the objective of the event was to proffer solution to the nation’s leadership and economic challenges.
Adeosun, a Pharmacist, who named the company after his grandmother, Mama Racheal, said audacious leaders were stubborn, fearless, calm, and understood the secrets of sustainable prosperity.
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