Asaju: Africa Needs Dedicated Leaders to Develop

Current Nigerian leaders lack ideologies, educational erudition

Goddy Egene, Sunday Okobi and Ugo Aliogo

Eminent Nigerians yesterday expressed the urgent need to deliberately grow good leaders at all levels and in all sectors on the African continent as a way to reposition the continent for the desired growth and sustainable development.

One of these Nigerians was Professor Adedapo Asaju, who professed the need for the continent and Nigeria to quickly develop and grow the economy in order to alleviate the hardship experienced by the populace, stated these while virtually  delivering a lecture titled, ‘Values for Africa’s Development’, to mark the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation 30th anniversary yesterday.

Prof Asaju also said there was need for mass reorientation of the citizenry and reeducating the present and coming generations about patriotism, nationhood, nation building, civic responsibility.

In his speech, the academic said: “New curricula can be designed to provide this. We need a re-orientation of the entire citizenry about their political rights and fundamental human rights. History needs to be introduced into the curricula of all students at all levels. People must know their history otherwise they will lose their identities with time.”

The former Vice Chancellor of Ajayi Crowther University, noted that the life and political values and methods of the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, as well as those of major pan-African heroes, especially Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Julius Nyerere among others should be developed as a subject of study in Africa’s educational institutions as a way to motivate young leaders of Africa who are in desperate search for successful leadership models and heroes in Africa.

According to him, “Obafemi Awolowo was in the class of the Winston Churchills, Mahatma Gandhis, Marcus Garveys, and Martin Luther King-men who changed the course of their people and societies by their good sense, caring hearts, sacrificial lives, charismatic leadership, intellectual and philosophical acumen, academic erudition, professional excellence and documented achievements.

“The books and publications containing Awolowo’s political ideologies and leadership style should be recommended texts for schools and universities. That way, a generation might be raised, who, though not having been fortunate to meet Awolowo during his lifetime, might, through his ideas, become genuine Awoists who run with his ideas to positively impact and develop their respective African countries.”

Asaju explained that good people who can make good use of the nation’s plural religious nature and ethnic diversity are needed to take charge of the ship of the state that floats adrift at the moment.

He said: “We are all in a colossal mess and at risk of capsizing inside the boat (Nigeria). What we need is a good pilot. And it does not matter what religion or ethnic group the person belongs. A sick man on a life-support who is in dire need of blood transfusion will not care if the blood to be donated to him belonged to a person of different religion or ethnic group. When we fly in airplanes, the religion of the pilot matters not; what matters is his or her expertise. And all our lives are actually in the hands of God and the pilot once we are air borne!

“Good people must join political parties, run under parties different from the sick big parties; mobilise the non-voting population, especially the youths, and change can be possible all things being equal (meaning if election rigging can be checked). Politics is not evil neither is it dirty naturally when corrupt people do not corrupt the process. It is simply the running of society by elected representatives entrusted with governance according to the constitution and other laws of the country.”

 Ideally, it is a good venture for good people with good character, positive and progressive ideals and programmes to avail the society of their wisdom, tact and expertise. Proverbs 29: 2 states that: “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when a wicked man rules, the people groan.”

The professor added that: “Our leaders at moment have no ideologies, no educational erudition, no finesse of charisma, no agenda, no character or integrity; no principles or discipline, just fashion shows rather than ideologies and pragmatic developers.

 “There are no more thinkers in Nigeria. The authors of inspiring political books are gone. We could count not less than 10 books authored by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, a typical philosopher-king. Our leaders today are ignorant, intellectually empty-headed, diplomatically oblivious and incoherent, and they lack persuasive ideologies of their manifestoes for governance. Eventually, they experiment with power, become tin-gods, unreachable by the poor masses; steal from the public treasury, corrupt squander-mania and borrowers of huge debts which they hardly ever pay back while in office, rather emptying treasuries and leaving great indebtedness for their successors and potentially enslaving the unborn generations.”

Speaking also at a virtual meeting and 30th anniversary lecture to mark Awolowo’s posthumous birthday, the Executive Director, Awolowo Foundation, Dr. Awolowo Dosumu, remarked that partisan politics was far from him (Awolowo), but was an avenue for him to attain the necessary vantage position from which he could assist his country and the people to reach the immense heights that he was convinced was their manifest destiny.

Dosumu said for these and many other reasons, the ideas of Awolọwọ legacy remains the definitive guide of the proposed institution, stating that it must avoid any hint of partisanship, rather, inclusiveness had to be its watchword if it was to make the desired impact, especially as Awolọwọ’s prescriptions appeared to have received universal endorsement as unassailable strategies for development.

She stated: “The mission of the foundation which we celebrate today coincide with the birth and commemoration of Ghana’s Independence Day.”
She hinted that the Foundation was launched in Ibadan on April 11, 1992, with the generosity of the federal and some state governments at the time, as well as numerous public-spirited individuals who have helped in different capacity to preserve the ideology of the foundation.

Meanwhile, Prof Asaju added that the regional structure which emerged in the First Republic as well as the parliamentary system of legislature was an effective pattern of regional federalism which allowed each region to have considerable amount of autonomy to determine their policies, governance and economic advancements.

“We remain proud of the achievements of Chief Obafemi Awolowo-led Western Region which remain unsurpassed in Nigeria till date-talk of infrastructure development, housing estates, road network, free education, free healthcare, first television in Africa, industrial estates, agricultural farm among others. The unitary and the military government  destroyed all that and forced the country into  federal government dominated power structure which has left states and local governments at the mercy of federal allocations. This is a very dangerous and lazy system whereby all parts of the country looked up to Abuja for every important thing-feeding on crude oil drilled from the Niger Delta whose proceeds are shared and stolen by the others.

“We abandoned other resources and neglected independent initiatives and development strides by the regions and states. We now have an ineffective civil service, and unproductive workforce, a compromised citizenry, and a preponderance of corrupt leaders at all level. Against this backdrop, all looked up to the centre, and where it fails, the entire country is stalled as we experience at the moment,” he said.

Speaking more on the African continent, the scholar said African countries need to build transformative, good governance and democratic institutions. He said: “A crucial component of such institutions is strong leadership, leadership in the developmental state aims at defining an agenda that meets the needs of the people and puts national interests above personal interests. In this vein, leaders should own a development strategy, expressed in a vision to overcome underdevelopment.”

In his remark on the topic: ‘Values For Africa’s Development’, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Abubakar II, said it was therefore both pleasing and relieving to see that the discussion at the anniversary celebration was taking place at a time when there is pressure on Africa to develop.

According to him, “Nigeria for its size and history must lead this development of Africa. And as we have seen in other societies, development starts with a mind-set shaped by values, which are both indigenous and dynamic.
“Development must be sustainable and to be sustainable, it must be anchored in values that are indigenous. This will require us to come back to our roots and prioritise those values that can inspire and motivate development.

Of course there are values that are universal, but even universal values require local anchors which will give them meaning and traction. It is much easier to build on what we have than to try grafting foreign values on local psyche which have no roots in our cultural soil.”