Strong leadership, key to devt – Utomi, Adeyemi, don

Founder, Centre for Values in Leadership, Prof. Pat Utomi; Senior Pastor, Daystar Church, Sam Adeyemi; and Director, African Studies Programme, Johns Hopkins University, USA, Prof. Peter Lewis, have advocated strong institutions in Nigeria.
They spoke at the 9th CVL annual lecture with the theme, ‘Leadership and Nigeria’s performance’ in Lagos, on Tuesday.
Specifically, Adeyemi who said it was not only in government that Nigeria needed good leaders, noted that leaders were needed in businesses, churches and families to enhance the nation’s performance.
He said, “As it is, going by all international standards in politics, I can say collectively we are doing poorly; individually, some people are doing well. But we need to have majority of Nigerians doing well in leadership. Think about it, we do not have leadership school; we don’t teach leadership.
“So we have to start from somewhere. Let’s teach leadership, let those in leadership position read leadership; let the youth read leadership, let’s practise what we have read, let’s groom as many leaders as fast as possible. When all these are done, we can raise the quality of leadership in the whole country.”
He said when talking about leadership problem as it affects Nigeria currently, the Goodluck Jonathan administration should not only be singled out for criticism.
He added that if the right thing was not done, even though the government is removed, those who would succeed it might not fare better.
Utomi said the main reason the country is lagging behind was leadership, which he said cut across the whole spectrum of life.
He said for the country to get it right, its leaders must possess the knowledge and sense of value to influence the led.