Distrust, Greed Bane Of Nation’s Leadership — Provost

The Provost of the FCT College of Education, Zuba, Prof. Ismai’l Tijani, on Wednesday identified lack of trust and dishonesty as the major challenges of leadership in Nigeria.

Tijani made the statement at the 2012 Good Leadership Award, orgainsed by Awareness for Good Leadership, Peace and Development (AGLPD), an NGO, in Abuja.

He said that because of the challenges, people found  it difficult to believe their leaders, due to unfulfilled promises.

This development he added often led to “agitation, confrontation, deadly riots and conflicts which made peaceful co-existence very difficult” .

He noted that no leader could achieve any objective for the people in the absence of peace, stressing that peace was an essential ingredient for development.

The provost called on the leadership to pursue with high political will and commitment, the improvement of the social, economic and political lives of the people.

“Every good leader is automatically a peace-maker because good leadership brings peace even where conflict exists.

Tijani stated that for effective peacemaking to have meaning, a leader must listen to the people and understand their problems, through effective communication strategy and trust.

He said that when a leader bridges communication gap between him the led, people’s trust in him would be enhanced and peace would achieved.

“People must trust the person leading them for peace to be achieved, if peace is achieved, it will set pace for productive progress as efforts will be geared toward innovations,” he said.

Tijani said that with peace, there would be economic growth, thereby setting pace for national transformation and overall improvement in the lives of the people.

The President of the NGO, Malam Abdullahi Aliyu, urged public office holders to desist from using their offices for personal gains.

.”It is important that public office and democracy should not be taken as a licence for looting and stealing of public treasury as well as promoting the interest of any vested group,”  Aliyu said.

He commended the awardees for rendering selfless service to humanity in their various establishments.

Aliyu said the award conferred on them had gone a long way to confirm that not all those in public office indulged in corruption and abuse of office.

Responding on behalf of the awardees, the Principal, FCT, Vocational and Rehabilitation Centre, Malam Bala Musa, thanked the orgainsation for acknowledging their little efforts.

Other awardees include the FCT Area Council Secretary, Dr Yahaya Gwagwa and Director of Security, Federal Capital Development Authority, Alhaji Mohammed Bashir.