Former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has told President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that there is no hiding place for treasury looters in order to attain steady growth and development of the country.
Besides, Obasanjo enjoined other African leaders to do the same so that the continent would overcome the myriad socio-economic and political challenges retarding it’s progress.
The former president spoke through the Deputy Coordinator, Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Mr. Ayodele Aderinwale, in Ibadan, Oyo State, at the opening of a five-day third biennial international conference with the theme, “Polity Debacle and the Burden of Being in Africa”, organised by the Faculty of Arts, University of Ibadan.
According to Obasanjo, “There should be no respite, there should be no hiding place for treasury looters. And good people with ideas must come forward to be counted, get elected or supported by good people to grow the economy and provide solid infrastructure.”
He noted with dismay that more often than not, the focus of leaders in Africa had always been on material resources, rather than human capital.
Besides, Obasanjo enjoined other African leaders to do the same so that the continent would overcome the myriad socio-economic and political challenges retarding it’s progress.
The former president spoke through the Deputy Coordinator, Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Mr. Ayodele Aderinwale, in Ibadan, Oyo State, at the opening of a five-day third biennial international conference with the theme, “Polity Debacle and the Burden of Being in Africa”, organised by the Faculty of Arts, University of Ibadan.
According to Obasanjo, “There should be no respite, there should be no hiding place for treasury looters. And good people with ideas must come forward to be counted, get elected or supported by good people to grow the economy and provide solid infrastructure.”
He noted with dismay that more often than not, the focus of leaders in Africa had always been on material resources, rather than human capital.
Obasanjo added that African political leaders must make changes that would “reduce corruption and generate the laws, policies and practices needed to redraw the efforts at catching up with the rest of the world.
“African citizens on their part will have to create the popular pressures that will push African leaders to address the challenges of leadership, fiscal and economic, managerial, infrastructure, industrial and technological deficits.
“The town and gown must collaborate to make Africa the best. Those in political leadership position must ensure policy framework and enabling environment to provide public infrastructure.
“There is need to restore the social justice issues around resource control, citizenship and governance. Let me state unequivocally that our standards of living will rise the moment we take our destiny in our hands. I know we have what it takes.”
A renowned political economist and management expert, Prof Pat Utomi; former presidential spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati; Prof Emeritus Ayo Bamgbose of the University of Ibadan; and representative of the only female senator elected in all the 19 Northern States in the 2015 elections, Binta Garba, representing Adamawa North also gave reasons for the underdevelopment of Nigeria and Africa and preferred solutions.
Utomi, in his submission, attributed the bane of Africa to collapse of culture, weak institutions, wrong policy choices that deplete progress, unfavourable disposition of leadership to human capital development and so on.
He explained that the collapse of culture had changed the orientation of people from delayed gratification to immediate gains, greed and so on.
“African citizens on their part will have to create the popular pressures that will push African leaders to address the challenges of leadership, fiscal and economic, managerial, infrastructure, industrial and technological deficits.
“The town and gown must collaborate to make Africa the best. Those in political leadership position must ensure policy framework and enabling environment to provide public infrastructure.
“There is need to restore the social justice issues around resource control, citizenship and governance. Let me state unequivocally that our standards of living will rise the moment we take our destiny in our hands. I know we have what it takes.”
A renowned political economist and management expert, Prof Pat Utomi; former presidential spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati; Prof Emeritus Ayo Bamgbose of the University of Ibadan; and representative of the only female senator elected in all the 19 Northern States in the 2015 elections, Binta Garba, representing Adamawa North also gave reasons for the underdevelopment of Nigeria and Africa and preferred solutions.
Utomi, in his submission, attributed the bane of Africa to collapse of culture, weak institutions, wrong policy choices that deplete progress, unfavourable disposition of leadership to human capital development and so on.
He explained that the collapse of culture had changed the orientation of people from delayed gratification to immediate gains, greed and so on.
Effective leadership, according to him, was all about shaping culture and the way things were done, adding that culture is about values, which must be upheld for the betterment of the society.
The keynote speaker, Prof Akanmu Adebayo, a professor of History and Conflict Management at the Kennesaw State University in the United States of America, noted that the cost of governance in Nigeria and other African countries had been too high and unsustainable.
Adebayo said Nigeria and other African countries must fight corruption, but they must review the strategies for anti-graft campaign, saying, “Anti-corruption strategies that have not worked include public shame and execution, special tribunals and/or the court and so on.”
He also noted that studies had shown that the leadership elite had been forming alliance with the economic elite and traditional rulers to stay in power, warning that attention should not only be focused on public governance, but governance of religious and traditional institutions.
The don advised that men and women should be empowered to live to their fullest dreams, saying that the people must keep hope alive, and “we must rethink the cost of governance.”
The keynote speaker, Prof Akanmu Adebayo, a professor of History and Conflict Management at the Kennesaw State University in the United States of America, noted that the cost of governance in Nigeria and other African countries had been too high and unsustainable.
Adebayo said Nigeria and other African countries must fight corruption, but they must review the strategies for anti-graft campaign, saying, “Anti-corruption strategies that have not worked include public shame and execution, special tribunals and/or the court and so on.”
He also noted that studies had shown that the leadership elite had been forming alliance with the economic elite and traditional rulers to stay in power, warning that attention should not only be focused on public governance, but governance of religious and traditional institutions.
The don advised that men and women should be empowered to live to their fullest dreams, saying that the people must keep hope alive, and “we must rethink the cost of governance.”
He called for reduction in the number of elected representatives at the national and state levels, adding that legislative duties should be on part time basis.
“We need to turn down irreverent campaigns for separation, secession, and dissolution of the countries in the continent,” Adebayo said.
