By: Monday Danladi, Bauchi
Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Barr Yakubu Dogara has opined that decades of poor leadership, systemic corruption and diversion of local government funds are some of the major factors that plunged Nigeria into the present economic crisis it is battling with.
He was speaking on Saturday at the 14th Convocation of Achievers University, Owo, Ondo state as the Chancellor of the University.
He stated that those who despair and have been wondering about how Nigeria got into the present unmitigated disaster, “this is it, arrived at by decades of weak, wasteful and visionless leadership at all levels of our Government.”
The former Speaker also acknowledged that over two decades of unbroken democracy has not resulted in adequate security of lives and properties of the citizens, quality infrastructure, decent employment, access to qualitative education, health, shelter, food and water nor afforded the generality of the people adequate standard of living which are the economic and social rights that enable people to live with dignity and participate fully in society.
According to him, “There is no hiding place for us any more because Nigeria is no longer the same. Structural injustices, mass illiteracy, mass poverty, mass unemployment and underemployment have all combined to pull out those we have pushed to the fringes of society to our streets and villages with heavy tolls on Nigerian lives and devastations at all levels.”
He stressed that,”The numbers are staggering: with over 33% unemployment rate, assuming the numbers are not deliberately understated, and nearly 60% youth unemployment, our young people face an uncertain future.”
Yakubu Dogara added that, “We now have a critical mass of highly educated Nigerian youths who are questioning everything including questioning the questions themselves. It is obvious that the frustration we are feeding them has reached a tipping point whereby even the illiterates won’t take it anymore, much less the educated youths who have freed themselves from fictional constraints and are asking questions like never before.”
The Chancellor identified over reliance on oil revenue, removal of fuel subsidy, astronomical increase in interest rates, infrastructural deficit, policy inconsistency and uncertainty, corruption and mismanagement, weak industrial base, decades of systematic looting of LGA funds meant for development at the grassroots by states which serve as the middlemen in the allocation process and dollarization of the economy as factors that led to loss of monetary policy control, inflation and exchange rate volatility.
He said that, the most important question should not be how we got here, but how do we get out of it saying, “Establishment of Mini-Grids. Let us fix the energy crisis, for without power, our efforts to industrialize would continue to be a pipe dream. How ludicrous is it when I hear people talk about transitioning from a consumer nation to a producer nation when we cannot generate enough electricity to power our homes after years of massive investment in that sector without any demonstrable results.”
According to him,”In order to make progress, I suggest that the country should be zoned and the generation, transmission, distribution broken down into manageable units.”
He also stated that, “The concentration of power provision systems into giant/unmanageable units is a big mistake, as is evident from the historic record breaking national grid collapses within a year leading to frequent supply disruptions. This has continued to cause huge economic losses to our country, in terms of lost GDP.
According to him, “The smartest thing to do is to borrow a leaf from other nations. Breaking up the supply architecture into more manageable units, and involving the private sector, is highly recommended.”
He added that, “Also, allowing mini grids to sprout all across the country, should be part of our overall long term strategy. Let no one beguile us, for without adequate and reliable power supply, our dream of a robust MSME ecosystem would remain only that, a dream! The privatization of the power sector, started in the past, should be continued and accelerated with the speed of light.”
He stressed that,”No time for blame game. Above all, we must understand that it is lack of leadership that plunged us into the mess we are in right now of failure to prevent bad problems from getting progressively worse and it is effective leadership that will move us out of here.”
According to him,”To blame others is not the path effective leaders take. Grit, gravitas and gumption are what define effective leaders who do not bother about the next elections but their legacies and the next generation. Instead of spreading blame, or avoiding or circumventing tough conundrums or situations, effective leaders own and tackle those situations as if they were of their own making.”
“Any transformation leader must be brave especially when those you are leading are depending on you to show up when it is really, really back breaking to do so. show me a leader who delivers sustainably strong results and I ll proof to you that he is never a wishy -washy leader,” he added.
Yakubu Dogara added that,”I will show you a leader who believes that history does not just happen to us, we make history happen. I will show you a leader who knows that not everything that is faced can be changed but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
