Cleric blames Nigeria’s woes on political leadership, seeks true federalism

Nwodo laments state of the nation

Primate of All Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Most Reverend Henry Ndukuba, has blamed Nigeria’s intractable problems on failure and insincerity of the political class to thoroughly deal with the issues.

He noted that the nation’s woes were mostly caused by politicians, arguing that if the ruling class would get things right, Nigeria would be a better place without much challenges.

Answering questions from journalists yesterday in Abuja, Ndukuba who advocated true federalism, noted that Nigeria needed to rethink how to co-exist, as a nation and how to use its natural resources to the advantage and good of all.

He pointed out that the situation in which federalism becomes a union where all the constituent parts struggle to grab power and resources must be fraught with challenges. Ndukuba further argued that the country has foundational problems of leadership, stressing, “While our concept of leadership is faulty, the fundamental problem is whether we have the right policies.

“Nigeria has a wonderful constitution and policies, but the problem is implementation, which is usually dogged by selfishness and greed and insensitivity to the feelings of others, especially the weak and vulnerable.

“The problems are so much that it is difficult to proffer any lasting solutions, because there is no one answer to all our problems, as they are spiritual, ethical, political and otherwise.”

Meanwhile, President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Nnia Nwodo lamented the country’s missed opportunities, saying he was completely appalled by the nation’s present state of affairs.

Nwodo stated that the polity had so much retrogressed that it would take a miracle for the country to catch up with other countries of the world in terms of development.
He said the situation had been compounded by indiscriminate borrowings with little or no investments for the overall survival of the country.

He noted that that the way the current administration had engaged in external borrowings, future generations of Nigerians would end up in perpetual debts, insisting, “What we are doing so far is servicing debts. We have not even talked about liquidation of the principal sums.”

Speaking during a television interview monitored by The Guardian in Enugu, Nwodo stressed that the situation of the country had become extremely deplorable and that his personal engagements with President Muhammadu Buhari had not yielded the required results.