Former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, says Nigeria is still in search of national leaders and that its democracy needs serious rethinking in terms of scope and focus.
Mr Amaechi was the guest speaker at the 2023 TheNiche Annual Lecture themed: “Why We Stride and Slip: Leadership, Nationalism and Nigerian Condition,” on Thursday in Lagos.
The former Rivers governor said Nigeria’s nationalism and nation building were younger than the nation as an independent entity and that there had been more rulers than nationalistic leaders.
He also questioned the extent to which Nigerian leadership had been imbued with the necessary sense of national unity.
“The only person near that point of Nationalism with all respect is Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo. The rest are ethnic leaders.
“Truly, remarkable national leadership is the ability of a leader to galvanise the totality of a nation around the common national banner with a vision and a sense of mission.
“The truly remarkable national leader is the one that is able to rise above limitations to take the nation and its people to that place where they long for but have never been before.
“It is a place of national greatness, pride, achievements and shared goals, aspirations and prosperity,” he said.
He said that most nations are products of amalgamation of diverse nationality under a common sovereignty and many had tried to resolve the problem of internal diversity.
