By VICTORIA OJEME
Bishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, weekend, dismissed as incorrect insinuations of failure of leadership on the part of President Goodluck Jonathan for many socio-economic woes besetting the country.

Speaking at the Nigerian Leadership Initiative, NLI, forum organised by First Bank PLC, with the theme, “Power without Authority: Leadership Crisis in Nigeria”, Bishop Kukah said the religious, economic and political issues constantly confronting the country, is as a result of the inability of successive governments to confer authority.

He said, “the problems of Nigeria are not caused by Jonathan but the rot is happening at his time. We have become comfortable in the rot that we are in because, the things Nigerians have got used to are things that are absolutely unacceptable in other parts of the world.”

According to him, “we live in an environment where the abnormalities of yesterday have become normal. Our leaders are accidental tourists, we have never had a President who has name recognition so, where we find ourselves in Nigeria today is not an accident, we need to go back. Nigeria is notorious for never concluding a debate, they simply push it aside,”  the Catholic clergy added.

He, however, expressed optimism over the transformation agenda of  the present administration saying that “all the materials available should be enough for that transformation to take place”.

Bishop Kukah further canvassed urgent need to change the leadership pattern of Nigeria if the country wants to make head way, saying, ”there is a sense of emergency about changing leadership pattern in the country”. Nigerians must understand that democracy is not all about winning elections but internalizing values and the political elite must rethink the whole process of truth, if the people love and trust their Government, they will support its rule of law”

In his remarks, Head Public Sector, First Bank, Mr Muntari Zubairu called on young leaders to   make use of every opportunity to identify and solve problems to avoid an escalation into crisis.

He argued that young leaders should “give serious attention and get information needed for development, they should begin to identify and solve problems before they get to crisis point,  since leadership entails being proactive rather than being reactive”

He assured that First bank will continue to support any laudable initiative, targeted at developing the country as part of it’s corporate social responsibility.