Carrington, wife task Nigerian leaders on development

FORMER Unites States of America ambassador to Nigeria, Walter Carrington and his wife, Arese yesterday said that for Nigeria to truly become the giant of Africa, its leaders must eradicate extreme poverty and stop using government resources to meet personal needs.

On her part, Arese Carrington tasked African women to live up to expectation and be at par with their male counter rather than being “behind and or beside”.

They were at the University of Benin as guest lecturers at the first ‎Eminent Lecture series of the institution.

Carrington noted that five years ago, Nigeria celebrated the 50th anniversary of its existence as a nation adding that sadly, for a greater part of its existence the country was rarely a nation that was ruled with the consent of the people.

“For most of this time, it has been controlled by the military juntas who neither had nor wanted the consent of the people,” he stated.

He pointed out however that with a democratically elected civilian head of state and with the personality of President Muhammadu Buhari, the country would fulfill the third of Lincoln’s prepositional triad making his “a government for the people, a government which cares more for the welfare of the poor majority and the disadvantaged rather than for the unjust enrichment of the privileged few and their enablers who too often in the past have looted the national treasury.”

According to him, there is a far flung Diaspora which sees a revitalised Nigeria as the great hope of The Black World, noting “at a time when so many dismiss Africa as a continent made of nations whose leaders are too venal to govern on behalf of their people we look to Nigeria to prove the doubting Thomas wrong.”