Senate President, Ahmad Lawan Blames Nigeria’s Hardship On Poor Leadership

Nigeria’s failure to address the leadership issue with purposeful measures, according to Senate President Ahmad Lawan, will aggravate the country’s issues.

He stated that the country needs to implement a determined policy to sustain and produce leadership at all levels of government because the country lacks genuine leadership.

This was expressed by Lawan during the launching of the Kashim Ibrahim Fellowship’s fourth cohort in Kaduna.

Nigeria’s poor leadership at all levels of government, according to the senate president, is a major factor impeding the country’s progress.

According to him, government at all levels must develop a determined leadership policy to promote the kinds of goals the country must attain, according to the Peoples Gazette.

“In all cases we never stated anything about leadership in Nigeria for us to reach the level of development that we need in our country, every part, segment and strata of the society must have a developed, deliberately focused leadership, so that what we do at the local level compliments what we do at the state level and from there, terminating at the apex – at the Federal level.

“No matter how hard we try to develop our country at the federal level, if our states are not able to provide the kind of leadership and complementary development, then we cannot achieve the kind of goals and targets that we feel we must achieve as a country,” Lawan said.

Speaking further on the insecurity ravaging the country, he said there is a need for a collaborative effort from all state governments to overcome security challenges and not just those affected by banditry and terrorism outright.

He said if there are quality leaders at all levels of government, it will positively impact the country because they are being prepared for the task.

“It is not about your state; wherever there is good development in this country it spirals into others. When Boko Haram started in the North-East, some people felt that was a Borno state matter but today Boko Haram is beyond Nigeria and no one in Nigeria is safe.

“It is with leadership, if we have leadership in any part of the country, it wraps up positively on other part of the country.

“When we have these array of leaders Nigeria has a hope that we will have leaders who are not only willing to give leadership because they happened to be there but because they have been prepared to give leadership,” he added.

In 2015, Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, set up the Kashim Ibrahim Fellowship, a leadership mentorship and training programme for young people.

The programme is named after the first Governor of Northern Nigeria, Sir Kashim Ibrahim.