Cost of governance, threat to Nigeria’s development, says Peter Obi

Obi told participants of Course 4 of the Strategic Management and Policy Course, at the Nigerian Army Resource Centre in Abuja.

“Progress will not happen in Nigeria for as long as we maintain the quantum of wastage in public service,” Obi told his audience, comprising retired Generals and serving top brass officers from the Army, various security agencies and paramilitary organisations.

He said that Nigerian leaders must strive to create public wealth, rather than focus on accumulating private wealth when in office.

“Public wealth enriches everybody, but private wealth impoverishes the people and the nation,” he said.

According to Obi, the core of Nigeria’s challenges is leadership, stressing that until our leaders commit to good governance and responsible management of public resources, the right policies will not be put in place to serve public good.

Earlier in the programme, the Director-General of the NARC Maj-Gen Garba Wahab (retd.) welcomed Obi to the centre for third year in a row, to address participants on leadership and strategic management issues. He explained the goals of NARC, as well as the centre’s reason for occasionally bringing in ‘The Town’ to interact with course participants.

Immediately he was introduced by the Lead Faculty for the Strategic Management and Policy Course, Dr Okey Ikechukwu, Obi held his audience spellbound with his experiences as governor, and how he managed to get the resources he used in achieving the much he did, saying: “Whether we agree or not, failure of leadership is taking a huge toll on us as a nation, and it could be worse if we do not put the right and committed people incharge of the affairs of critical sectors. Education, Health and provision of basic infrastructure were my main goals and I was able to record success because we planned our programs using a universally certified development formula.

Obi described owing pensioners and going about wasting money on useless social projects as criminal, stressing that “owing people at the most difficult times when the opportunities are less is the worst thing to do to them.

The director general, in concluding, thanked Obi for always being ever ready to share his thoughts and experiences with the centre, in the latter’s endeavour to fulfil its mandate of developing high calibre human capital for strategic leadership, national security and holistic national development.