Ghali Na’ Abba
All the leaders that had governed Nigeria since the birth of democracy in 1999 till date are more or less, accidental leaders going by how they separately emerged, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Ghali Umar Na’ Abba has said.
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 duldrums. We have been having successive accidental leaders since 1999.”
