Nigeria is bleeding to death, needs a leader to save it –Prof Nwabueze

National chairman of the Patriots and Igbo Leaders of Thought (ILT) Professor Ben Nwabueze has said that Nigeria is bleeding and seriously in need of a leader to save it.

According the statesman, the country’s constitution which gives semi-literate president, governors, state and federal lawmakers access to political offices is a hindrance to quality leadership the country deserves.

Nwabueze, who insisted that it was essential that the 1999 Constitution be amended, also canvassed that an upper age limit of 70 years or below be allowed for anybody seeking to contest for elective positions in Nigeria.

He stated this in a statement he made available to newsmen, insisting that sound education remains one of the qualities and credentials needed for good leadership.

He said, “Our dear country is bleeding to death. It needs a leader to save it. Nigeria is anything other than an underdeveloped country or that its economy has been, or is being effectively managed is fanciful, indeed a fallacy… or based on dream.”

On what should be the age limit for politicians aspiring for leadership positions he said, “The wear and tear and stresses of life, coupled with health and other challenges, rob every one of us after the age of 70 years, of the energy required for the job of governing Nigeria.

“Anyone aspiring to govern and lead Nigeria as President should also be a person with plenty of energy, a high amount of energy characteristic of the youth, the energy of youth, the kind of energy that will enable him or her to engage in the arduous task of mobilising the people for national transformation; mobilisation of the people for such a purpose being one of the most arduous tasks of political leadership.”

He stated further in the statement, that “Good leadership: The qualities and credentials needed for good leadership can readily be identified. The primal credential is good education, such as would enable the leadership to combine -ideas and power, intellectualism and politics.

“Leadership is a critical part of Nigeria’s problem of governance because the educational qualification prescribed for our political leaders by section 131(d), as amended by the National Assembly in 2010, and section 318(1) of the Constitution does not equip them to be able to combine ideas and power; intellectualism and politics.

“A semi-literate president or governor is what the prescription tantamounts to. What little literacy is acquired from the educational system at the primary school level is soon lost owing to the lack of a reading culture that pervades our society, caused to a considerable extent by the enthronement of wealth as the determinant of social standing and the consequent inordinate pursuit of it and of other mundane, non-intellectual pursuits.

“No one with this kind of thoroughly inadequate educational background can be expected to read, with understanding, the Constitution of Nigeria, laden, and it is, with difficult and perplexing concepts, or the books on constitutional law, political science and sociology where the knowledge of these concepts can be found.

“The effect of these provisions is, lamentably, to entrench in the Constitution the intellectual poverty and educational inadequacy which has characterised leadership at the level of the presidency since independence in 1960 right up to the election of President Umaru Yar’Adua in 2007 (the first university graduate to hold the office of Executive President discounting the interim arrangement under which Chief Ernest Shonekan, a university graduate, ruled for four or so months) and the ascension to the presidential office by Vice-President Dr. Goodluck Jonathan on May 5, 2010, after the death of Umaru Yar’Adua.

Read also: REVIEW… APC CRISIS: Tinubu might yet have a joker up his sleeves< ./font>

“The low educational qualification prescribed for elective political leaders has resulted, sadly, in the relegation of intellectualism in government and politics in the country. Intellectualism is concerned essentially with the notion of ideas, that is: the mental ability to comprehend ideas, and to reason or think them out.

READ ALSO: KANO UNDERAGE VOTING: INEC says viral pictures of child voters are from Kenya

“An intellectual is a person engaged in creative and rational thinking about the world, about humanity, about human relationships, and about the governance of human society; he is a person dedicated to the study and understanding of ideas that govern and shape our world, society, the organism known as the state, and generally to intellectual pursuits and interests.

“Our Constitution should, therefore, prescribe an upper age limit for the presidency, say, 70 years or lower, as is the case in some countries of the world, and as is done for non-elective public officers in Nigeria.

“In addition to the sort of education that would enable the leadership to combine ideas and power, intellectualism and politics, the type of leadership needed for our country has to be one, not only committed to democracy and constitutionalism, but also one at once dedicated, single-minded, selfless, disciplined, patriotic and highly motivated in the national interest with a deep concern for the public good/welfare, a leadership able to mobilise the various strata of society, and prepared to commit suicide by sacrificing its vested economic interest in the preservation of the status quo.

“It must be a leadership whose sincerity of purpose is so transparent as to induce people to adopt the desired new patterns of behaviour in place of the old ones and whose dedication to the cause is sufficiently total and selfless to inspire confidence, a leadership that is seen to be practising what it preaches.

“People cannot be persuaded by the leadership to be tolerant, honest, public-spirited, patriotic, fair-minded, law-abiding, devoted, disciplined if the leaders themselves do not practise those virtues.”

RipplesNigeria… without borders, without fears

Click here to join the Ripples Nigeria WhatsApp group for latest updates.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now