By Ihechi Enyinnaya
Former Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim, has called for an usual leadership approach that will meet the challenges currently facing Nigeria, noting that such leadership must have vision and capacity, determined and inclusive.
He said this on Sunday in Lagos while receiving the Zik Prize in leadership on Sunday.
🔵Emir of Kano presenting the Award to Sen. Anyim
He said if Nigeria must survive in the years ahead, “we must have peace at home and respect abroad. For that, we need leadership that understands the challenges, the imperatives and concomitant of the 4th Industrial Revolution.
He said: “Our problems are now monumental and more complex. Therefore, the demand for leadership in present-day Nigeria has become more daunting. For instance, our population has risen from about 45 million in 1960 to over 200 million in 2020. Most of that population are in the youthful bracket. Our economy has moved from the boom of the 1960s and 1970s to cycles of stunted growth and recession in the last decade. Our educational institutions have moved from the best rankings in the 1960s to mediocre positions in the 2020s. Our Naira has depreciated from 65 kobo to a dollar in the early 1980s to the present N568 to a dollar in 2021. Our labour market has moved from employment of choice in the 1970s to crises of underemployment and unemployment in the 2020s. In agriculture we have gone from a net exporter of food and cash crops to a nation of food insecurity and import dependence. Nigeria was founded on the principle of unity in diversity, but we are now more divided than ever in our history. Most of us will still remember when we were our brothers’ keeper, but today danger lurks at every corner, nobody is safe anywhere. Around the world our image has shifted from the giant of Africa to what some say is the poverty capital of the world.
