Nigeria’s poor rating in the corruption perception index and other indicators of public probity is a cause for concern, according to the former Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Dr Sam Amadi.
   
He added that the country is also very poor in the rating of state effectiveness.  He made the remarks as Guest Speaker at the sixth yearly Lecture of Just Friends Club of Nigeria(JFCN) yesterday in Abuja, with the topic, ‘High Cost Of Governance As An Impediment To Development’.
   
The event was chaired by the erstwhile Director-General of the National Lottery Regulatory Commission, Olorogun Peter Igho.
 
“Despite having an array of well-educated and nurtured people, the expectation is that Nigeria will be suffused with a high degree of ethics and competence in corporate and public leadership,” Amadi noted. To him, Nigeria faces an acute crisis of values which is reflected in the gross lack of productivity in both its private and public sectors.

He went on: “As a world-leading producer of oil, we ought to be richer than we are. But we know that the wealth of nations does not come mostly from natural resources. Countries like Singapore and South Korea are not so naturally endowed. They are geographically constrained in many ways. But Nigeria won the geographical lottery in many ways. Yet are in many ways victims of Dutch Disease. Natural resources have not translated into wealth. They have mostly turned into a curse. Natural resources in themselves are not a curse. They are a blessing. But a blessing that calls for more work to turn them into a lasting benefit to the people.”