Founder, Living Faith Church Worldwide, Bishop David Oyedepo, has berated African leaders, saying that they lack character, capacity and courage, three virtues he said they must have to move the black continent out of the woods.
Oyedepo, who delivered a keynote
address during Covenant University’s 20th inaugural lecture at the
university premises on Thursday, also noted that unlike their western
counterparts, African leaders do not build institutions that would
outlive them.
The lecture delivered by Jonathan Aremu, a
professor of International Economics Relations at CU, was themed:
‘Sequencing and negotiating Nigeria’s regional and international trade
agreements.’
The fiery cleric was making allusion to Aremu’s
lecture where he (Aremu) bemoaned Nigeria’s indifference and lack of
will power in drafting effective trade policies and negotiations with
bodies such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS),
African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Environmental Protection
Agency (EFA) and African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), among
others.
The development, Aremu argued, has left the nation unable to articulate her interest among the aforementioned bodies.
Oyedepo,
however, blamed the situation on Nigerian government’s lack of
foresight and its inability to identify opportunities that would benefit
the led.
He said: “It is unfortunate that many of our leaders are intellectually bankrupt.
“When
confronted with some of these beautiful initiatives, it is very
shameful that they often don’t know the meaning. And if they don’t know
the meaning, how will they go about implementation?”
“I have often said it that our leaders lack three Cs-capacity, courage and character.
“Where
is the capacity when you are bereft of intellect required of a leader?
Where is the courage when you don’t have the political will to follow
through with policies that will improve governance? And where is the
character when all they are thinking is how to win election as many
times as possible while ignoring developmental initiatives?”
Oyedepo
said the leadership should take a cue from an institution like Harvard
University which has outlived the founder for centuries.
If Harvard were to be in Nigeria, it would have been in ruins in less than two decades, the cleric noted.
Nonetheless,
Oyedepo said not only leaders are culpable, noting that the led are as
much guilty for looking the other way for too long.
This,
according to him, is the reason the Covenant University platform was
conceived to point out the ills in governance while also recommending
solutions to them.
Earlier in his lecture, Aremu lamented that Nigeria has not been forthcoming with effective trade policies and negotiations.
He
said: “Trade negotiations remain one of the most complex, challenging,
and sometimes controversial issues in contemporary trade policy.
“This
is more serious for Nigeria which has no current trade policy. The
administrative burden of handling and negotiating trade policy is a
serious concern.
“Even as at now, the country still faces
technical constraints on the negotiations of multiple agreements that
will serve her trade interest.
“Confronted with generally weak negotiating, regulatory and implementation capacities, the country is handicapped in her ability to engage meaningfully in all these negotiations.”
Source:- Thenationonlineng
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