A Professor of Social Ethics at Boston University, Nimi Wariboko, asserted that Nigeria has been unlucky since its independence on October 1, 1960, to have leaders who focus on their pockets.
Wariboko said this on Inside Sources, aired on Channels Television on Friday.
He said, “The bulk of the responsibility for our failure lies with the political elite; the governance structure, because we’ve been unlucky since independence to
have leaders who focus on their own pockets, who focus on capturing the state and using the state to extract resources from Nigeria.
“So, the state power has become the means of production, and in that process, every other form of economic activity is almost inhibited. So, as long as we have leaders who use the state as their means of production rather than creating a
proper functioning capitalist economy or a market economy that will unleash the
resources of Nigeria, we will continue to experience the problems.
“The major obstacle to our economic development is politics. So, the lack of appropriate leadership is the major cause of our ongoing underdevelopment and suffering.”
He also said that while Nigeria professes to operate under a federal system, the reality is that the country functions more like a unitary system of government. In this context, he suggests that the constituent units, particularly the states and local government areas, should be afforded greater autonomy.
He further noted that Nigeria is heading the wrong way and that the country has not started its journey to greatness.
He said, “I don’t think we are on course; we are still heading the wrong way until we make a course correction and come back, we are not going anywhere. It’s like somebody going from Lagos to Sokoto, and then you decide to go to Port Harcourt first, and you are even going down to the Atlantic, so that is the kind of movement we have, and we have not yet started the journey to our greatness.”