Former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, on Monday, said that the country is yet to enjoy dividends of democracy since the advent of the present democratic rule because Nigeria is in short supply of good leaders.
Delivering a paper, titled, “Importance of Personal Leadership Competencies in an Organization in Transition”, at the retreat organized by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital, the former national electoral umpire said that Nigeria has been experiencing bad leadership since the return of the civilian administration.
Jega, who said that, though, Nigeria parades good leaders, lamented that the country was in short supply of good leaders.
“Nigeria has been on a trajectory of liberal democratic development continuously for 23 years, since 1999 when the military returned to the barracks, while every four years we have routinely elected representatives into the legislative and executive arms of government.
There is consensus that these elements of liberal democratic development have not yet translated into substantive socioeconomic development that satisfies the needs and aspirations of the overwhelming majority of citizens.
“For the past 23 years, the country has been under democratic rule, but the so-called dividends of democracy have not yet been delivered to the majority of Nigerian citizens. Unfortunately, there has been bad leadership, not that there are no good leaders in the country but they are in short supply while the democratic institutions are also weak.
“In general, leadership at all tiers of the Nigerian federation has not been good; it has been essentially bad and undemocratic; characterized by bad, rather than good, democratic governance.
“Many national organizations and institutions have been afflicted/affected by this tendency towards bad governance.
“The basic things we require in good governance are good leaders that can be transformational and transitional if we are to achieve good dividends of democracy”, Jega said.
The Professor of Political Science, Bayero University, Kano state said that the country needs a leader with good representation, responsible and responsiveness, integrity and honesty, adding that such a leader must have cognate experience and competence understand democratic governance and must be a leader who can inspire and motivate the followership.
“We also need institutions that can inspire good governance”, the former INEC chairman said.
In his speech, the Director General, National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), Professor Abubakar Sulaiman, said that Nigeria cannot afford to fail its citizenry in its over two decades of democratic evolution.
On the retreat, Sulaiman said it was convened for the management staff of the institute to key into the agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the National Assembly under the leadership of Senator Godswill Akpabio.
He said that the country has started experiencing changes in the economy with the present administration and harped on the need to deepen the partnership between the executive and legislative organs.
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