A University Don,
Professor Ben Naanen, has identified what he Christened “Pathways to Nigeria’s Development.”
Such pathway, he said, include “Visionary Leadership that Work for the well being of their entire citizenry, rather than Pandering to the pecuniary interest of the parasitic elite class.”
Professor Naanen, stated this at the 119th inaugural lecture of the University of Port Harcourt recently.
Delivering the lecture entitled, “The Prosperity and Poverty of Nations: Using Global Models to Explain and Mitigate Underdevelopment in Nigeria,” Naanen cited Singapore and China as prosperous Asian countries which were once mired in poverty, corruption and under-development.
According to him, these countries later attained development and economic prosperity as a result of visionary leaderships.
He, therefore, called for “visionary, decisive and enlightened leadership to move Nigeria to the next level of development,” noting that, “great leadership, strong and effective institutions, including doing the first things first, are needed to achieve posterity and national greatness for any action.”
The Professor of Economic History continued that Nigeria is enmeshed in debilitating circle of corruption, underdevelopment and poverty, saying that the solution to this “may come more from the political channel than through economic channel.”
Poverty, he said,” is a state of abject want and the absence of the basic needs of life. Manifestation of poverty include lack of money, hunger and malnutrition, illiteracy and ignorance, lack of decent clothings and housing.
“Great nations are never products of accident, rather, they are results of complex and conscious processes of nation –building, social engineering and national sacrifice. There cannot be a great nation without great leaders.
“Great leaders will first conceive a vision, then design a strategy to attain that vision, know where to take their nation and how to arrive at the destination, pursue their vision with focus and intergrity, mobilize, inspire and earn the support of their citizens.
“They will then proceed to build strong institutions, and the institutions in turn will define the trajectory of successive leaderships,” Naanen explained .
The essence of instituting strong institutions, he said, will check corruption, ensure that economic and development policies conceived by the  visionary and enlightened leadership work in order to create wealth, and ensure the rule of law.
When this happens, the Professor continued, the overwhelming majority of citizens are inspired to do their right thing in order to build a prosperous nation.

Sogbeba Dokubo