He said Nigeria needs honest and modern leadership to move forward.
Ribadu, who spoke at the 2013 Independence anniversary lecture of Shell Club, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, said it is time for Nigeria to look beyond oil.
He said: “In the past 53 years, this country has recorded significant milestones. We have survived severe cold similar to what that saw some countries sneezing to death. We remain standing, though someone wrote that we are standing still! Yes, he could be right! The country is endowed with abundant natural resources and brilliant human capital. Yet, the paradox is there is widespread poverty due to misused resources and untapped potentials.
“It is therefore true that wherever Nigeria is mentioned, what comes to mind is Boko Haram, oil theft, kidnapping and corruption.
“Nigeria also lags behind on every world index that signifies progress and development. Our lives are daily deteriorating in a frightening way.
“This is not to give in to pessimism; I strongly disagree with those writing off Nigeria as a failed country. Agreed, we could do a lot better based on what we have in terms of natural resources and demographic advantages. Nigeria stands on a foundation built by our founding fathers who in their wisdom also salvaged and formed a stack of bricks with which we are to build the nation up. “But the generations following our founding fathers used those bricks only to form ever more insidious fences that divide us across the lines of ethnicities, regions and religions.
“Nigeria’s problems have been shifted from the actual, which is the collapse of our institutions after many years of military, political and bureaucratic imprudence, to an invented assumption which suggests that our peoples are unwilling to live together.”
Ribadu said Nigeria needs honest and modern leadership to move forward.
He added: “However, to drive all these we need honest and modern leadership that could be a rallying point for the citizens, and one that can tame the consuming tides of corruption.
No comments :
Post a Comment