Don’t blame Nigeria’s woes on political leaders alone - Kolade

The Pro Chancellor, Pan-African University, Lagos, Dr Christopher Kolade, on Thursday, said there was need to look beyond political leadership for the myriad of problems bedeviling the nation, by retracing our steps to the failure of leadership at the family level.
He said that it was wrong to heap the blame of Nigeria’s challenges on the political class, without admitting the failure of family as a nucleus to uphold high moral values and exemplary leadership qualities.
Dr Kolade, who was  guest lecturer at the 50th anniversary of  Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State contended that, “one of the ways in which we often give ourselves false comfort is to declare, from time to time, that Nigeria’s problems should be blamed on failure of political leadership.”
Delivering a lecture entitled: “Possessors At The Gate” in Oduduwa Hall, the industrialist maintained that, “we ought to understand that leadership does not exist only at the top of the governance system; leadership is essential everywhere, beginning with the family, and going all the way through institutions, systems and associations and all other places where we work together to achieve certain ends.”
While contending that “a leader who is greedy will be corrupt and he is bound to fail in his leadership responsibility,” Dr Kolade added, “if we look closely, we will realise that leadership is necessary in every place where some responsibility or the other must be carried out. If we had good leadership performance in every family, would we not enjoy responsible and effective governance in the nation?”
According to him,”When a greedy governor becomes only a possessor at the gate of opportunity, he may siphon funds from the state treasury and transfer the money to account in the foreign land. His gate keeping misdemeanor not only deprives his people of their fortune but it enriches the economy of another nation while compounding the poverty in his own territory of responsibility”.
“Nigerian leadership can add great values if we take true ownership, rather than mere possession of our responsibilities”, stressing that “why the performance of our leadership may continue to fall short, is that there are certain things about responsibility that cannot be legislated”, Dr. Kolade submitted.
He, however, observed that effective transition from possessor status to an ownership role is a process that is largely self driven, pointing out that “self assessment and self improvement can only be effective if the individual is a person of true and integrity”.