No one in his right senses can be satisfied with the situation of things in the country. I, for instance, believe that as a nation, we are a contraption put together, and made up of different people. We have not yet developed a system that will ensure that everyone that makes up the nation feel part and parcel of the life of the nation. I think that is one major problem that is responsible for many other things that we have. I have been an advocate of making Nigeria become a true federation.
A true federation, in which each part of the nation, is able to develop according to its own trajectory, but nevertheless, subject to the nation as a whole. In some places, they call it devolution of power; here, we call it restructuring. I have been an advocate of that. Here, we have gone away from federation and we have almost become what I don’t know what name to qualify our status at this point in time. So, one cannot be satisfied with the state of governance in that way. And then, of course, over the years, we have not had the kind of leadership our country deserves.
Many people have said it on several occasions that people need to be prepared for the office they occupy. In some more advanced democracies, there is a trajectory that people go through; almost a kind of formation that they go through before they can even aspire to become leaders in the land. But here, we have a situation in which leadership is literally thrust upon people; and as a result, they have difficulties in carrying out their duties.
• Most. Rev. Dr. Alfred Adewale Martins, Archbishop of the Metropolitan See of Lagos.
