By Nuel Suji – Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Umar Na’ Abba has declared that President Muhammadu Buhari and all other leaders that had governed Nigeria within the last 18 years, precisely since May 1999 till now, are more or less, accidental leaders going by their emergence.
Mr. Na’abba who stated this in Abuja during the 2016/2017 Matriculation and Fellowship Endowment Ceremony of the National Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS), blamed the Nation’s leadership recruitment process for the accidental leadership problem as against prepared and vision driven leadership obtainable in most other democracies of the world .
“Circumstances at hand or situations on ground have to a large extent over the years determined who and who was elected into office in Nigeria as President since 1999 as against level of preparedness on the part of the leaders in terms of clear vision and programmes obtainable in most democracies of the world culminating in accidental leadership for the country,” he said
According him, accidental leadership brings about try and error in governance which has been the lot of Nigeria since 1999 till now with attendant poor governance and frustrations on the part of Nigerians.
He expressed regret that leadership recruitment process in the country has been hijacked by a few politicians.
He therefore advocated for what he called regular ‘tutorials’ for political leaders at all levels and called on more Nigerians to participate in politics with a view to opening up the political space.
He said: ” I believe that not just the Legislature, every arm of government that is serving the purpose of governance must invest in exposing democracy to the people. It is a sad commentary on our political life that today recruitment into leadership has been subverted by a few politicians because they deny Nigerians opportunity to contest elections and achieve their aspirations through the systematic appropriation of political parties to themselves
“These politicians have stopped the growth of democracy. And it is true that unless democracy is allowed to grow, we cannot achieve the desired political growth, we cannot achieve the desired economic growth and we can also not achieve the desired social growth in our country. And that is why we are still in political, economic and social doldrums. We have been having successive accidental leaders since 1999.
“It is time for us to begin to understand that the more participation Nigerians enjoy in politics, the more political development we attain. and consequently, economic and social development.
“We have been advocating that tutorials must be taking place on a continuous basis for stakeholders in democracy from the local governments to the states. Every stakeholder particularly party executives because what is sad today is that most of those who hold positions at the executive level on our political parties cannot distinguish the duties, functions and distinction between and among our political institutions. So, with this lack of knowledge it is almost impossible for them to understand the kind of people that should serve at various levels”.
