Bad Leadership, Bane Of Nigeria’s Dev – Amaechi

Rivers State Governor, Rt Hon Chibuike Amaechi has attributed Nigeria’s intractable political woes on bad leadership, ethnicity and weak institutions.
Governor Amaechi gave the hint while delivering a lecture at the second conference of the People’s Media Limited at the Ladi Kwali Hall, Sheraton Hotel, Abuja.
Speaking on the topic “The Metaphor of Change and Politics of 2015”, Governor Amaechi, said change was imminent in the face of glaring corruption that characterized the present political dispensation.
Represented at the event by the Rivers State Commissioner for Information andn Communications, Mrs Ibim Semenitari, the state governor said Nigeria abandoned an Agrarian economy for an economy driven by oil revenue, which enhances the development of army of looters.
Amaechi, who picked hole in the Federal Government’s anti-corruption war, said  corruption was not a repository of the military  but was perfected through their civilian collaborators, and warned against the emergence of “civilian dictatorship”.
The Rivers State governor regretted that the fight against corruption in Nigeria, which gained root under the Olusegun Obasanjo regime, got eroded under successive administrations, and is today at best a lip service.
He also decried the high level of intolerance in the polity, and emphasized that the “drum of war and voices of intolerance give course for worry about the determination of the Federal Government under the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to guarantee free and transparent election in 2015”.
The governor expressed worry over the growing insecurity in the North East and other parts of the country, noting that poor education and high ratio of unemployment was at the root of the security crisis.
Amaechi, however, commended the effort of the Federal Government in resuscitating the railway and the sale of power infrastructure, and stated that action should be expedited in these critical sectors to restore hope to Nigerians.
The Rivers State governor also criticized the deviation of the polity from the rule of law and the guarantee of the basic human rights of every Nigerian, and urged Nigerians to use 2015 as a platform of exercising their franchise through active political participation and choosing credible leaders.

Cross section of the members of Concerned Women of Nigeria in Rivers State, during a peaceful protest against the killing of innocent women and children by the Boko Haram sect in the Northern part of the country. Photo: Egberi A. Sampson