Uwem Essia

Atiku Abubakar: Matters Arising Uwem Essia

At independence in 1960, the expectation that Nigeria will soon become a great country was high. With huge human and mineral resources, such an expectation was justified. Time Magazine celebrated the birth of Nigeria with a cover story. "The Giant of Africa." But sadly after six decades of independence Nigeria can at best be described as a sleeping giant. Our collective failure is founded on a leadership recruitment model that is enmeshed in "dirty politics" that is woven around religious and ethnic bigotry.
It is submitted here that the perennial failure of governance in Nigeria results from a failure to institutionalize free and fair elections and a governance system that renders elected officials not accountable to the political parties that provided them the platform to contest and win elections.
Having credible public service leaders emerge requires that we jettison naively constructed political settlements adopted for leadership selection in the past, like zoning based on ethnicity or religion. The participation space should be open to all qualified aspirants henceforth. Rather than use zoning to ensure equitable distribution of authority, we can consider incorporating a system of proportional representation and systematically eliminate the present winner-takes-it-all syndrome.
It takes a visionary leader like Atiku to implement the above set of reforms. He has in principle rejected zoning by advocating that the playing field be leveled for all the candidates. Atiku is concerned about improving the nation's education system as the bedrock of professional excellence, growing graduate employability, and job creation.

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