Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and ex-Chief of Army Staff, Gen. T. Y. Danjuma (retd), have decried the dwindling quality and standard of leadership in Nigeria.
The two statesmen spoke when members of the League of Northern Democrats (LND), paid them courtesy visits in Abeokuta and Lagos respectively.
While Obasanjo promised to be the patron of the group, asking it to expand its operations to include the rest of Nigeria, Danjuma challenged those currently in public office to look beyond themselves and take immediate steps to stem the tide of poor leadership to leave behind a nation for future generations to inherit.
Leader of the group and former governor of Kano State, Ibrahim Shekarau, had informed Obasanjo that the group was with him to tap from his wealth of experience in governance and leadership.
Obasanjo said: “Anytime you people metamorphose into a League of Nigerian Democrats, come back to me and I will be your patron.
“I share your concern of the situation in Nigeria, but if you’re a national league, I will join you and even be your patron, if I cannot be active because I’m getting old”.
The former president noted that with the calibre of membership of the delegation, he was confident something good would come out of it.
He expressed gratitude to Shekarau for his commitment, while commending the group for taking the trouble to come to Abeokuta, in spite of the harsh economic situation in the country. He also commended Dr. Umar Ardo for the foresight in convening the group.
On his part, General Danjuma lamented that the quality of political leadership in Nigeria was “going down and down and down”.
Danjuma, who noted that the situation was “worse in the north’, urged leaders to sit up and stem the worrisome tide.
The LND, which disclosed these in a statement in Abuja, yesterday, quoted Danjuma as advising members of the league to pursue their vision with measured doggedness because they were up against a section of “a corrupt political class with plenty of power and money” that would be ready to fight back to continue being in power.
Leader of the LND delegation and former Kano State governor, Sen Ibrahim Shekarau, while speaking during the visit, explained that the visit was to brief Danjuma on the vision and mission of the league, which was principally to influence the emergence of credible leadership, especially in the north.
This, the LND said, could be achieved by forging unity among the various northern interest groups, facilitate a credible leadership recruitment process across all offices and make the north a bloc of first influence in Nigeria.
Shekarau had lamented that, right now, the north was immersed in insecurity and backwardness in education, economy and development in generally.
He said the LND was intensifying contacts and consultations with eminent statesmen to tap into their vast knowledge on politics and leadership which were crucial to society.
Responding to this, Danjuma said while age was no longer on his side, members of the league should be commended for their initiative and commitment, promising to offer his support in anyway he could.
The general, became emotional when Muktari, the son of late Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, recounted some events of January 1966, and described the late Sir Balewa as a truly great man.
In his vote of thanks, the Secretary of the group, Emmanuel Jime, thank God for the life of President Obasanjo, whom he described as the most “nationalistic and detribalized Nigerian alive”.
Earlier, the LND was convened in July and since then, had been engaged in several activities, making consultations and trying to define itself.
It gained good grounds with the former Vice President Namadi Sambo, General Martin Luther Agwai, General AbdulRahman Dambazau, General Alwali Kazir, and a host of other critical northern leaders. And its membership has been on the increase.
