By
Abdullateef Aliyu
And
Momodu Precious
Mon Jun 07 2021

A former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, on Saturday, said Nigeria has been afflicted with the misfortune of leaders who are not selfless and visionary.

He spoke in Lagos during the first memorial lecture in honour of the first Civilian Governor of Lagos, late Alhaji Lateef Jakande, organised by Federal Social Democrats, (FSD) with the theme, “Selfless Leadership and Good Governance: Jakande as an exemplar.”

Jega who joined the lecture virtually said the absence of visionary leaders has stunted the development of Nigeria.

He said, “We must first and foremost acknowledge that Nigeria has been afflicted by the misfortune of having characters in governance who are neither selfless nor visionary, who are rather greedy whether for power or money who are essentially clueless about matters of governance and reckless in the way they handle governmental affairs and consolidators of bad democratic governance.

“One of the major challenges of good democratic governance in Nigeria is that of having selfless, patriotic, inclusive and effective leadership in order to drive Nigeria national affairs and the development of the political economy towards the goal of democratic governance. Getting things right would require selfless and visionary leadership.”

He noted that the late Jakande was undoubtedly a selfless leader.

“He was a leader with great foresight, he was impactful. One can say he touched lives and indeed one can say he was focused in implementing policies, his legacies and his memory lives forever,” he stated.

Interim chairman of FSD, Mr Olutola Mobolurin, said, “Alhaji Jakande was well known for integrity, it was as much a personal attribute as it was a prized attribute of the political party to which he belonged.

“During his electioneering campaign for the governorship of Lagos State, he promised as his party manifesto promised, free education at both the primary and secondary school levels, books inclusive, from his first day in office, he fulfilled his promises, his real world was a world of integrity”.

May God judge you for saying trash after rigging buhari into power in 2015

May God judge you for saying trash after rigging buhari into power in 2015.

Nor be your northern leader carry the trophy?
Was Nigeria not better when ruled by Obj?
Na your Fulani cow people dey destroy the country
They steal, loot, kill and even protect their corrupt kins. Na northerner be the wahala of the country

Shut up that mouth you used in rigging in Buhari in 2015

You brought this clueless and heartless leader on this country

This man is trying to save himself from the incoming chaos

True, including you, nigeria has never been lucky with her government, the only man I still respect is SHONEKAN and YARADUA

So true.

He said, “We must first and foremost acknowledge that Nigeria has been afflicted by the misfortune of having characters in governance who are neither selfless nor visionary, who are rather greedy whether for power or money who are essentially clueless about matters of governance and reckless in the way they handle governmental affairs and consolidators of bad democratic governance.

That's the situation we find ourselves in this country its very very unfortunate.

Criminal Jega.
You will still land in prison for subverting the will of the ppl in 2015.
Lived and travelled round Yobe the whole of 2013 and when this criminal in 2014 said Yobe had 70% voters card collection, I knew something was wrong.

Yea yea yea we know we have bad leaders but this are just symptoms

Any logical person should ask ...why does our system produce bad leaders ....is not that Nigeria lack quality leaders ...we have seen Nigerians perform in the private and outside Nigeria to a remacable degree ...what then is the problem ...it's obvious it's the system

We have a system where the most backward people select who leads the country ...it can't work na ....what did u expect ...worse still is that this backward people influence who is elected in other parts of the country ...so they support people of their level intellectually at most

The whole Nigeria is moving at the pace north wants to move

nthony10:
This man is trying to save himself from the incoming chaos

He oversaw the coming in of the present disaster leadership.

Abomination! Jega, na you de talk like this?

mrvitalis:
Yea yea yea we know we have bad leaders but this are just symptoms

Any logical person should ask ...why does our system produce bad leaders ....is not that Nigeria lack quality leaders ...we have seen Nigerians perform in the private and outside Nigeria to a remacable degree ...what then is the problem ...it's obvious it's the system

We have a system where the most backward people select who leads the country ...it can't work na ....what did u expect ...worse still is that this backward people influence who is elected in other parts of the country ...so they support people of their level intellectually at most

The whole Nigeria is moving at the pace north wants to move

There has been a decline across the tenure of every leader but some decline make others look like progress. The reason for this decline is reproducing and growing in population against a stagnant economy or rather same circa 2 million barrel per day of crude which forms the basisand foundation of our economy over the last 50 years.

Whoube99:
May God judge you for saying trash after rigging buhari into power in 2015

Ipob still in tears 6 years later.

Jega should shut his mouth.... After allowing underage voters in the North to rig the election for Buhari, and claiming the election was free and fair... he's now taking about visionless leaders.

Jega after seeing the clueless president he installed...

He is right but watch how ipob terrorist will start attack him he conducted same election in 2012 that favored Jonathan.

...hmm, but you are a key part of the process that brought in the greatest disaster of all time - Buhari, into power.

Look at this election rigger!
Erubebe saw what's coming when he cried "jega we will not take it!" But u ignored him.

If i had the power, I for kill every idiots wey help to install this disaster into power

No be this same Jega put us for this mess we are in 2015. What moral justification does he have to comment on such issues right now