A former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, has urged Nigerian leaders to be more accountable, saying it is the elixir for lifting the country to loftier heights.
Ezekwesili stated this just as she identified strong policies, institutions and investments as harbingers of socio-economic development.
She spoke on Tuesday in Lagos during the inauguration of the Bunmi Adedayo Foundation.
While urging leaders to be accountable and responsible, the former minister noted that these attributes would push them to cater to the needs of the people deeply.
Making a veiled reference to the ongoing investigation into $2.1bn arms deal, she noted that it was distasteful that the nation’s leadership was only concerned with sharing resources, while its citizens were dying and living in poverty.
She said, “I-don’t-care attitude seems to be a virtue our leaders hold onto dearly. It is reprehensible that our society will be degenerating while its leaders stay awake to share resources of the common wealth. This attitude manifested more with the recent tragedy in the North-East where those responsible for governance sat round the table and felt comfortable sharing the money meant to fight the Boko Haram insurgency.
“This cannot happen in saner societies and countries. In such countries, their leaders will stay awake to confront the challenges facing their people.”
Ezekwesili, who stressed the need to curb corruption in the country, therefore, urged Nigerians to be more vigorous in demanding accountability from their leaders.
Earlier, the Chairman, Board of Directors of the foundation, Mr. Babatunde Akinleye, had said the initiative was to immortalise Bunmi, the deceased son of the owners of Tastee Fried Chicken Limited, who believed in caring for the less privileged members of society.
Akinleye added, “The cardinal aim of the foundation is to improve the lives of children from disadvantaged background, but more importantly, to extend Bunmi’s dream to bridge the gap of quality education delivery between private and public schools in order to make public school pupils competitive locally and globally.”
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