Nigeria Cannot Develop With Religion-Based Leadership Selection – Jonathan

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has warned that Nigeria will proceed to wrestle with growth till it abandons what he described as primitive strategies of voting political leaders based mostly on faith, ethnicity, language and different slim concerns.

Jonathan mentioned the nation should transfer away from such practices and prioritise competence and benefit in management recruitment, stressing that regardless of how certified a person is perhaps, Nigeria couldn’t make significant progress if management choice remained tied to divisive concerns.

The former president spoke on Saturday on the Herbert Macaulay Colloquium held in Lagos to mark the 162nd anniversary of the beginning of the nationalist pioneer.

Born on November 14, 1864, Macaulay is considered one of many founding figures of Nigerian nationalism.

Speaking on the colloquium, Jonathan mentioned: “We are still suffering from political leaders being recruited based on religion, language and all kinds of things. Sometimes it is even beyond Muslim or Christian. I know of a particular state in southern Nigeria that 99.9 per cent of them are Christians. But if you don’t belong to one particular denomination, you cannot be the state governor.

“That is the kind of thing we do. So no matter how good you are, until we move away from these primitive ways of recruiting political leaders, this country cannot go.”

The former president recognized management challenges, institutional weaknesses, corruption, coverage inconsistency, insufficient infrastructure and insecurity as a number of the components impeding Nigeria’s growth.

He additionally referred to as for complete democratic reforms, describing Nigeria’s present democratic system as “opaque and amorphous”.

According to him, the nation’s democratic system should be reviewed to replicate widespread participation, the rule of legislation, respect for human rights, judicial independence, accountability, pluralism and a vibrant civil society.

Jonathan additional burdened the necessity to prioritise useful schooling and set up research-intensive universities able to driving technological development and innovation.

Citing India, Singapore and South Korea as examples, he mentioned the nations had leveraged high quality schooling to realize exceptional growth.

He mentioned, “You can’t go anywhere with weak educational institutions.”

He added that Nigeria should intentionally spend money on its greatest brains and set up world-class universities to compete globally.

Paying tribute to Herbert Macaulay and different founding nationalists, Jonathan mentioned the best honour the nation may accord them was not merely celebrating their sacrifices however constructing a nation that mirrored the beliefs for which they fought.