Former President of Ghana, Mr Jerry John Rawlings,
yesterday, warned Nigerians to stop hate speech and threatening of each other
on tribal grounds as this could lead to ethnic and tribal warfare, which will
not be a good development for Nigeria...
The former President made the remark while speaking at 12th
Annual Lecture organized by the University of Ibadan Alumni Association, UIAA,
Ekiti State branch. Rawlings, who was the Special Guest of Honor at the event,
advised Nigerians to endeavor to get people of integrity into leadership
position who will have the interest of the country at heart.
Speaking further, the Ghanaian leader said African
challenges have to do with leadership that lacks character, stressing that “by
character, I mean distinctive qualities that overcome the challenges we have as
constituencies and organizations. He said: “Let’s learn to be gracious. I am
sad over the mean behavior of my fellow black men. African countries are
plagued with several challenges such as agriculture, deforestation, bad
economy, governance, education among others.” Rawlings who was the Special
Guest of Honor at the event said that he is worried by the rating of Nigeria
and Ghana in terms of high rate of corruption by Transparency International
(TI) . According to him : “Transparency International shows that countries in
the South South region of Africa failed to address corruption and that Ghana
and Nigeria rate high in corruption indices. However, some leaders have the
will but not the character to fight corruption. The fight against corruption in
Nigeria calls for integrity and wise approach so that it will not conflict with
the lives of the people”.
He added that when Nigeria fights corruption rightly, it
will not only augur well for Nigeria but Africa and the world generally, as he
maintained that Nigeria commands about 75 per cent of the African population.
“Nigeria has the pride and integrity. Most African countries cannot meddle with
you people”, Rawlings said. In his lecture, Dr. Makanjuola Owolabi who was also
the Guest Lecturer with the theme: “Leadership with Character” recommended
active participation in Nigerian politics especially at the grass root levels
by all those who really graduated from Nigeria Universities and Polytechnics.
According to him,”We must also change our attitude to politics and governance
of winner takes it all, of revenge, vendetta, vengeance, exclusion, extreme
partisanship, wickedness and sadism which have been excluding close to 80 per
cent of Nigerians in government activities and expenditures at all levels”.
“Instead we need urgently a political class in greater numbers of good leaders
with the right characters and attitudes who are ready to serve and work
passionately for peace, progress and prosperity of Nigeria, he added”. Dr.
Owolabi also said from his aerospace and human factors insight and experience
while providing statutorily mandatory training for pilots, engineers and
others, there are a total of seven dangerous character traits or attitudes that
are responsible for all failures, accidents and disasters in any area of human
endeavors. These traits, he listed as “complacency, anti-authority,
invulnerability, “peculiar Ignorance, Culture and Tradition”, impulsiveness,
resignation and macho attitude or machoism”.
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