BUHARI SHOULD BE A NATIONAL, NOT NORTHERN PRESIDENT - BAKARE

Pastor Tunde Bakare of Latter Rain Assembly, Lagos, has advised leaders in the Northern part of Nigeria not to see the in-coming administration of General Muhammadu Buhari as the government of the northern region by bringing in nepotism.

Speaking during the 70th Commemorative Lecture of Wema Bank Plc in Lagos, Bakare said it would not help the Buhari administration if they begin to fill leadership positions based on ethnic and religion considerations.
Bakare who was a discussant at the lecture on “Why Nations Succeed” advised the President-elect to put round pegs in round holes by looking for men and women who are competent to fill leadership positions without religion, ethnic and other factors which have contributed to the failures of many administrations in the past. According to him Nigeria was neither a federation nor a republic but the country leaders were only lying by calling it Federal Republic of Nigeria, saying if they really want to make it a Republic a lot of things have to be changed.
He as well advised the nation to change from her over reliance on oil and start encouraging each geo-political zone to look inward and start developing its natural resources to generate revenue instead of continuing to rely on crude oil which he said was already dwindling in its revenue generation at the foreign markets. His words : “Cocoa House in Ibadan was not built with oil money. The first television station in Africa built in the Western Region by late Chief Obafemi Awolowo was not built with money from crude oil. Then each region was growing according to its own pace and there was healthy competition. ” He made it clear that if Nigeria would succeed the leaders need to change, stop doing all those things that have hindered it from succeeding and follow the part of success. “This of course is a choice. It is the choice we make as a nation that will determine whether we will succeed or fail as a nation.
The keynote speaker, Professor James Robinson, a political scientist from Harvard University, has called for a need to focus on developing inclusive political institutions, saying that the economics would sort itself out that way. He noted that all countries which had institutions now historically had extractive institutions.
Former Vice President (Africa sub region) of World Bank, Oby Ezekwesili said she didn’t believe that colonialism or multi-ethnic nature of Nigeria was responsible for her failure but because people who have been running the country in the past didn’t know how to make policies work. She called for a need for those who will be in politics to be those who know how to make good policies and also know how to make the policies work. She lamented that the long years of military rule in Nigeria had reduced the intelligentsia of the country and made a lot of people imbibe culture of corruption and lack of concern for meritocracy.
The Managing Director of Wema Bank, Mr. Segun Oloketuyi said the leadership of the bank came out with the idea of “Why Nations Succeed” to enable the nation found a way succeeding. He said for almost 70 years that the financial institution started as the first indigenous bank in Nigeria it has been contributing a lot towards nation building and want Nigeria leaders to continue to create enabling environment for the banking sector and the people to succeed so that the nation can succeed.