The Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) on Tuesday bemoaned the current state of the Nigerian economy and blamed the nation’s under-development on leadership failure.
Addressing journalists in Abuja, ahead of its forthcoming 2019 Annual General Meeting, the Chairman of the NIPR Federal Capital Territory Chapter, Dr. Tayo Haastrup, said one of the major challenges the country had over the years grapple with was a failure of leadership.
Haastrup said because of bad leaders, Nigeria has emerged as a country with one of the best human resources but was not living up to global expectations in all ramifications.
He said: “One of the major challenges that our dear nation has had to grapple with over the years is the failure of leadership across the social spectrum.
We have seen failure in this regard at the family, religion, and of equal importance, is the failure of political leadership, which has resulted in the under-development of our society.”
Haastrup also lamented the absence of a good succession plan for young people in the country, noting that this had served as a clog in the country’s quest for visionary leadership with the requisite drive to deploy its resources for the good of the populace.
He added: “It is, therefore, important to kick-start the process of national rebirth through the provision of platform such as the one provided by the NIPR, to enable all stakeholders to generate insights in the area of the type of leadership Nigerians must look out for.
“This is if we are to have any hope of resolving our huge unresolved national issues such as poverty, rapid urbanization, regional integration, gender inequality, food insecurity, violent conflicts, and political fragmentation among others.”
