Gamji restates need for exemplary leadership

THE need for quality leadership in Nigeria ahead the general elections was re-emphasised at the weekend by a non-political organisation, Gamji Club.

  Gamji Club is an association for the preservation of the legacies of late Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello. 

   The President General of the club in Kwara, Dr. Abubakar Ibrahim announced this yesterday in Ilorin during its 2015 public lecture titled “Wither: The Sardauna Leadership Legacies.”

   To ensure this, the club announced its resolve to establish Gamji Centre for Leadership in Ilorin, Kwara State capital.

   At the centre, the exemplary leadership qualities of the late premier of northern Nigeria and Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello as well as other credible leaders will be inculcated in the younger generation.

   Ibrahim said the establishment of the centre became imperative because “Nigeria is today suffering from lack of capable and effective leadership in all spheres.”

   “Nigeria is now in dire need of good legacies for it to overcome its current social, political and economic crises. Such leader must possess moral authority and esteem values of integrity, honesty and must be ready to undergo hardship and suffer deprivation on behalf of the poor masses.

   “He must be capable of bringing out a vision of what he wants to achieve and have the requisite knowledge and experience about how to solve the mirage of problems currently bedeviling our nation.”

   The GAMJI president expressed delight that the late Sardauna “in spite of wielding enormous power in the First Republic, he was a simple, upright and incorruptible man whose guiding principles in public services was honesty, public probity, accountability, efficiency ,dedication and hard work and in the pursuit  of these principles, he did not care whose ox was gored.   In fact, after several years as premier of Northern Nigeria, with a land size of about 56 per cent of the present day Nigeria, he left virtually nothing, except the two local mud houses in Sokoto town and Rabbah, which he had built before becoming premier.”

    In his remarks, the state Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, represented by the Commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development, Alhaji Saka Onmimago, expressed the hope that the lecture will explore the Sardauna’s leadership legacies especially in the context of the nation’s current search for transformative leadership.

   He added that, “it is on record that the foundation for much of the development and unification of Northern Nigeria was laid by the late Sir Ahmadu Bello.”