Former
Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan and
President Muhammadu Buhari have been in charge of the country during those
periods.
Speaking
in Abuja during the 2016/2017 matriculation and fellowship endowment of the
National Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS), Obasanjo said accidental
leadership brings about trial and error in governance.
He
blamed the nation’s leadership for the recruitment process.
“Circumstances
at hand or situations on ground have to a large extent over the years
determined who and who were elected into office in Nigeria as presidents since
1999 as against the 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.
“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.”
Source: jimidisu
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