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Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara has lamented that since independence, there has not been any conscious efforts to train Nigerian leaders beyond their ethical and religious appeals to imbibe the concept of nation building.
He further lamented that, “what we have today is winner takes all and win at all cost. Elected officials and government workers feel they have a right to a share of government revenues, and they use them to benefit supporters, co-religionists and members of their ethnic groups”.
Yakubu Dogara spoke when he delivered a keynote address at the National Mentoring and coaching conference on the topic ‘Governance and Political Mentorship: Imperative for National Development’ held on Thursday in Abuja.
According to him, “Our youths have been recruited as political thugs and have assumed positions without those ideals. To get out of this and archive good governance, we need a lot of political mentorship which some of us have struggled over the years to propagate”.
He said that “no mentorship takes place when we don’t push people to become who they really are but choose to operate in an uninspiring atmosphere full of threats, intimidation and blackmail. That is why it’s difficult if not impossible to raise true leaders in Nigeria whose impact will last for generations”.
Yakubu Dogara said that, “The problem is further exacerbated when an individual is deep. His colleagues will interpret that as arrogance while the boss concludes that he is too independent and dangerous, a sin that may lead to his being canceled”.
According to him, “Godfathers don’t develop people much less a nation, they use them instead. If progress must be made, we need a pool of true leaders who will lead us to build a nation and serve others not godfathers who demand that we always run to them to kiss the ring. Godfathers always see the masses around them as objects to be manipulated for their own empowerment and often sadistic entertainment”.
