By Anozie Egole

NSUKKA—A  former governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi has called on NIgerian leaders to see leadership as a call to service.

He said this yesterday while delivering a lecture at the Biennial Public Lecture organized by the   Faculty   of Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka in honour of Professor Chinua Achebe.

Speaking on leadership in Nigeria, Obi, who, agreed with Achebe that the problem with Nigeria is that of leadership, mostly used his tenure as the Governor to offer practical examples of what he did to succeed.

According to him: “As the Governor of Anambra State, I worked within limits of resources available to me. I made sure the resources of the state went straight to the end users. I reduced the cost of governance by doing away with what were not necessities for governance. I distilled the institutions relevant for governance and worked with them in the interest of the people of the state. That was how I returned school to the Church and partnered with them in re-building the health institution.”

Obi, who said that the society contributed to bad leadership by bestowing on those in power all sorts of honour and awards when they are still in office and evidently performing poorly, concluded by saying that aspiring leaders must see the people and the society rather than self, relations, friends and town as the centre of attraction

Speaking, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Prof. Pat Uche Okpoko, said that the choice of Obi for the lecture was borne out of what he described as his “exceptional and exemplary performance in Anambra State.”

Justifying his position, he said that at a time other governors left debts and unpaid salaries, that Obi did not borrow money, did not leave any debt, worked very hard to ensure that Anambra State now has the best network of roads, paid over N35 billion in arrears of pension and gratuity owned workers since 1999.