Nigerian Presidents Since Independence Were Accidental, Except Tinubu, Says Kukah

* As NDLEA uncovers drug cartel of blind men

Kuni Tyessi in Abuja

The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Kukah, has said Nigeria’s presidents since independence were accidental, except President Bola Tinubu 

Tracing the history of Nigeria’s leadership, the cleric observed that none of the country’s past leaders, including former Presidents Muhammadu Buhari, Goodluck Jonathan, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Olusegun Obasanjo, Ernest Shonekan, Sani Abacha, among others, came to power prepared.

He however lamented that the nation is still suffering despite President Tinubu’s preparedness to govern the country. 

Kukuh stated this in his keynote address at the 4th Amaka Ndoma-Egba Memorial Lecture with the theme ‘Leaders of Tomorrow: Creating Lasting Change In A Complex World’ held weekend in Abuja. 

The deceased, who was the wife of the former Senate Leader, Senator Ndoma Egba, died in an auto crash in Ondo State in 2020.

The event, which was held at the Start-Rite Schools, Abuja, saw the inauguration of a legacy building in honour of the deceased by the Governor of Cross River State, Senator Bassey Otu. 

Kukah lamented that Nigeria’s leadership crisis was due to the lack of knowledge, capacity and preparedness of its leaders who simply wanted to govern and enrich themselves and cronies and nothing more.

He said: “I don’t want to bore you, but run through. From the beginning, you’ll find that almost everybody who came to power in Nigeria was as the result of one accident or the other.

“President Tinubu, well, he prepared for it. However, we’re still trying to get off the ground. But he took over from Buhari, who had already given up. 

“Buhari took over from Jonathan, who was thinking that after finishing being deputy governor, he would go somewhere else and then something happened. Jonathan took over from Yar’Adua, who had actually said he was going to teach at Ahmadu Bello University as he was finishing his term as governor. 

“Yar’Adua took over from Obasanjo, who was in prison, and was not expecting to come out but he somehow found himself out of prison. Obasanjo took over from Abacha, who, sadly, even though the five political parties had said he would rule forever, nature took him. 

“Abacha took over from Ernest Shonekan, who was busy at the United African Company of Nigeria, and then they told him to come and be head of state. We can go all the way down but the fundamental to governance is knowledge.”

The Bishop also argued that the benefits of democracy go beyond physical infrastructure, roads, railways and other projects.

According to him, if democracy were solely about infrastructure, people would still be praising authoritarian regimes like Adolf Hitler and apartheid South Africa, which he said built impressive infrastructure during their reigns.

“Democracy’s benefits are often not necessarily measurable. They are largely intangible. It is understanding how to expand the frontiers of human imagination,” he stated. 

The Bishop also decried the culture of nepotism in the country, saying that ministerial appointments among others were often based on personal relationships rather than merit.

He observed that Nigerians are impatient with the current state of democracy in the country, which he noted is hardly working.

Kukah stated that despite the country’s little progress, Nigerians are never satisfied, adding that the nation will never be in a perfect place because such places do not exist.

He said: “We have made a choice to live with democracy as it is. We know that our democracy is hardly working, hardly functioning, although I’d be quick to say that we are very impatient with ourselves, very, very impatient.

“Nigerians are surprised when I say we have done pretty well. We are absolutely not happy and we will probably never be happy, because that’s not how the world is. You’ve got this, you want this, you want that. We are insatiable.

“Now, we are not in a perfect place, because perfect places don’t exist, and we shouldn’t be looking for leaders who will take us to a place of perfection, because nobody has found that kind of place. However, there are minimum conditions that we require in a leader, and I think we need to use them to measure the whole concept of leadership.”

The Bishop stressed the need for leaders to have set goals, boldness, courage and patriotism, adding that true leadership was about influencing citizens, not just holding office. 

The Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Buba Marwa, who also was the chairman of the occasion, charged the students to shun drug abuse.  

Revealing that the NDLEA had uncovered a drug cartel in which blind men are been used in peddling drugs unknowingly, he lamented that many families are writhing under the effects of the abuse of drugs and substances.

Describing drug abuse as the number one challenge facing the country today, he called on stakeholders to invest in the advancement of youth to ensure that their potential is properly harnessed. 

He said: “A blind man flew out of Lagos to Kano to make delivery of a huge consignment of cannabis. When apprehended, he said he didn’t know what the content were, but was given to him to deliver. So we went after the person who sent him in Lagos and discovered that he is also blind. Of course, we arrested him.

“He then said he was not the only one and decided to lead us to his partner who was also blind. We brought them to Abuja and we delivered the consignment in order to find out the person. We also discovered that he was also blind. I will not tell you our subsequent discoveries.

“The challenge of drug use is where I have channelled my energy today, especially in the lives of young people and also speaking to students on the dangers of drug abuse and its devastating consequences.”

Marwa also described the late Amaka Ndoma-Egba as a visionary agent who established Start-Rite schools to ensure that students learn and imbibe the necessary life skills required to navigate an ever challenging world.