By Wilfred Eya
Enugu State People’s Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate Dr Peter Mbah has said only the right kind of leadership can navigate Nigeria out of its current ordeals.
Mbah made the remarks Saturday 25th September while delivering a lecture as guest speaker at the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus.
The candidate decried the state of the nation as discouraging to the youth, saying the security collapse, high crime rate and ongoing industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU) are products of bad leadership in the country.
Speaking on the theme of the annual lecture series, “Leadership in Modern Times: Youths Bridging The Gap”, organised by the Medical Research and Humanitarian Society, University of Nigeria, Mbah expressed confidence that only the right leadership would put Nigeria back to track by harnessing the huge potentials of the nation’s youth to build a country of their dream.
“Good leadership should not only be about leadership traits, or visionary nature, but also about the ability of the leader to convey his vision and most of all, about his ability to carry his team through the motion of moving from their current state, to achieving their envisioned state. The test of leadership is the management of the journey and the dynamics of carrying the team along to the final objective,” Mbah said.
He observed that Africa is still battling with the kind of leadership model its colonial masters bequeathed to her which he called, heroic leadership complex, where leaders wanted to be worshipped as heroes rather than seeing themselves as servants of the people they’re representing. This, he said, had led to the collapse of leadership in Nigeria where youths are now at the receiving end.
“The collapse of leadership in Africa has had a reverberating effect on youths of the continent. Nigeria for example reflects this collapse in the different malaises suffered by the youths.
For instance, the level of nepotism that is currently in the country, the collapse of security, the menace of students staying at home for upwards of seven months simply due to the inability of government and the lecturers’ union to come to an accord on issues of funding of universities have a linkage to this collapse. More significantly is the fear that the Nigerian economy can go bankrupt if no urgent steps are taken to halt the decline,” he observed.
On the dire implication of the leadership failure on the country, Mbah said the youths who are the most valuable resource are leaving Nigeria in droves in search of greener pasture abroad termed as “jakpa”.
He regretted that often such desperate youths journey through the Mediterranean Sea to Europe and ending in disappointments and calamities.
He reiterated regrettably that the rush to escape the country by the youth was a colossal loss to Nigeria as the country had lost hundreds of her prime human assets with potentials to rescue the country’s future from the tragedy that lies ahead.
Mbah said Nigerian youths had become so disillusioned that they would never bother considering the risk involved in embarking on illegal journey to Europe.
He charged the youths to put their acts together for leadership by equipping themselves with the requisite skills and techniques. He called on different institutions and bodies to deliberately set up leadership programmes that would address deficiency on the youth and commended the MEDRHUS for organising this year’s lecture, saying it’s a right step in the right direction.
Explaining why leaders fail, Mbah said many of them lacked emotional intelligence which goes beyond good technical or work skills to factors such as self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills, adding that every potential good leader must study and imbibe the characteristics of transcendental leadership.
He highlighted what a good leader must also possess to achieve breakthrough in their defined goals and noted that leaders must imbibe the spirit of perseverance, humility, and commitment with a strong sense of mission, focus and teamwork.
Sharing his experience over the past two decades as a successful public and private sector figure, the former Commissioner of Finance and Economic Development in Enugu State said the youth and other aspiring leaders must never stop learning new things in a technologically driven dynamic system.
He said they must seek out opportunities of responsibility or service, build self-discipline, learn to be good team players, build virile communication skills and always think of innovation or new ways of doing things.
The PDP governorship candidate said the country needed a modern leadership driven by empathy for the people and hunger for the change to the status-quo.
Earlier in his welcome address, the President of MEDRHUS, Anigbo Stephen, expressed his profound appreciation for the presence of the guest speaker, saying the knowledge he would impact on the youths would make them more useful to themselves and the society.
He said Mbah as a leader has paved way for development of the youth in the society through his disruptive innovation and entrepreneurship drives.
Others present at the occasion were Mbah’s running mate, Ifeanyi Ossai, Director General of the State PDP/Peter Mbah Campaign Organisation, Chief Ikeje Asogwa, former deputy governor of Enugu State, Rev Dr Ralph Nwonye, former Senator Gil Nnaji, senatorial candidate for Enugu West, Osita Ngwu, House of assembly members, local government Chairmen, Traditional Rulers, among others.
