TheCable

Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra, says Nigeria has every resource to make it better but poor leadership is limiting the growth and development of the country.

He said this on Tuesday at the fourth annual lecture organised by Freedom Online in Lagos.

Obi said he is optimistic that the future cannot be bleak but there is an urgent need to act fast in fixing the problems of the country.

“Most of our leaders are idealistic and not realistic. All we are experiencing today is a cumulative of leadership failure over the years,” he said.

“Poor leadership can destroy everything we claim to have and this is one of the problems in Nigeria. We have these leaders because our recruitment process is poor.

“The quality of leaders is poor, the selection process is poor. People are coming to contest for the election but nobody is questioning their background.

“We ought not to compare a country like ours with China which has no natural resources but is ranked as one of the great sevens. Let us compare our country with countries with the same population.

“It’s quite obvious we have everything but lack leadership.”

He said one way of engaging good leaders is to understand what their objectives are for Nigeria to be a developed country, adding that Nigerians need to fully participate in the process.

“Let’s draw a specific road map to safeguarding the future of our country now. We must begin to focus on the leaders and the leadership process because the quality of our leadership has an impact on us,” he added.

“How do we tell citizens to pay tax when they haven’t had enough to eat?

“However, all of us have to be a part of it to be able to change the system but we said it isn’t our business so lunatics took over. I have been able to conduct elections without giving anyone N1.”

He however urged Nigerians to get involved and ask questions as this is one major ways of solving the problem of poor leadership.