By Oluwakemi Ishola
An Ibadan Chief, Oloye Taofeek Adegboyega Adegoke on Thursday declared that many Nigerians are tired of the present political dispensation we are running.
Adegoke, who is the Ajia Balogun of Ibadan land made this declaration while delivering a paper as part of activities to commemorate the 60th independence anniversary of Nigeria which was organized by Oyo State Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Ibadan.
At the event were Chief Adeniyi Akintola (SAN and NUJ Chairman, Mr. Ademola Babalola.
Adegoke while speaking on the topic, “Nigeria @ 60: Challenges and prospects”, noted that his interaction with many people have revealed that many Nigerians are already tired of the present political dispensation which started in 1999, because this is not what they expected.
He said, “My interaction with people in the town revealed that people are tired of this present political dispensation. This is because, this is not what they expected. We got this democracy 21 years ago, on the plater of gold 21 years ago, but what is our experience. Look at where we are and look at what they are giving us. The challenges facing this country can be summarised into two, leadership and followership. People said that Nigerian police cannot change, I can tell you that they will change if they have the right IG.
Adegoke while speaking further lamented that it is worrisome that Nigeria has not been having good leaders.
“We do not and have not been having the right quality and size of leaders at the helm of affairs be it local, state, and at the federal level. In addition, most followers continue to show laissez faire attitude/approach to national issues and problems.
“It is important Nigeria leaders and followers realize that leadership and followership play critical roles in nation’s development. Leaders and followers must make conscious efforts at engendering economic growth and development, and that economic growth and development require.
“Good leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion. As a leader you must strive to perfect the ability to speak effectively and persuasively. That is, good leaders must be able to communicate effectively with very high level of assurance, we only experienced something close to the above during the 1st Republic
“The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things. That is, a good leader manages men and resources, and productively galvanizes them to produce the desire results…..we only experienced something close to the above during the 1st Republic and probably now in Lagos State”.
Adegoke spoke further saying that for Nigeria to experience feasible, continuous and socio-economic development, credible leaders must emerge.
“Nigeria has positive prospects to be a great nation because we have what it takes to be great! Nigeria can and will be great. We have both the human and other resources that are required and needed to climb up the ladder and be called a Developed Country. All we need is getting our leadership process right which will ultimately change the orientation, thinking, behavior and attitude of the followers.
“We now have young vibrant minds; retired and active technocrats that have excelled in their various chosen fields of professional endeavor showing interest in politics.
“For Nigeria to be great, responsible leaders must emerge, selfless leaders must emerge and followers must be ready to take up the challenge. For Nigeria to experience feasible, continuous and socio-economic development responsible and credible leaders must emerge, and followers must be ready to take the leadership to task in order to implant the act of good and selfless governance in the country. We need the people that will challenge our leaders, but the followers are not doing the right thing”.
