By DAPO SALAMI IBADAN
NIGERIAN leaders have been told to make good governance and transparency their watch word, as doing the contrary will not augur well for the generality of Nigerians and the nation’s developmental strides.
The International Coordinator, National Coalition for Good Governance and Transparency, NCGGT, Pastor Henry Adebayo expressed this view in a statement in Ibadan, Oyo State Capital.
He said the nation has come short of the expectations of the founding fathers of Nigeria and the world at large in spite of the huge potentials available to it in both human and natural resources.
Adebayo supported the summation of a great Nigerian novelist, the late Prof. Chinua Achebe, who in one of his political essays titled “The Trouble With Nigeria,” stated that the failure of governance both past and present is attributable to bad leadership.
Adebayo said: “Having realized that the aspirations of the masses have been subjected to the whims and caprices of the ruling class, the National Coalition for Good Governance and Transparency, resident and in the Diaspora, has taken up the gauntlet to remedy the situation. We do not only want to be-labor ourselves with the role of a watchdog, but to also give kudos to any government that meet the needs and aspirations of the masses.
“And we are ready to constructively, (that is, positively), criticize any erring administration where we believe it has derailed in the pursuit of the Nigerian dream, having adopted the United States of America’s model that every citizen has the right to pursue his own happiness through legal means and where this is denied, the electorates reserves the right to change such government through democratic process.
“We will not stand aloof in the all important task of searching for credible leadership, as we have observed that some former Governors such as Goodwill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State and Egwu of Enugu State, to mention but a few, are in the habit of going to the National Assembly in spite of alleged corruption cases against them by the EFCC. It is said that he who comes to equity, must come with clean hands. In this wise, only those who have been cleared by the anti-corruption agency should be allowed to aspire for any political office if qualified constitutionally.
“We, however, commend President Muhammadu Buhari’s zero tolerance to corruption and his resolve not to rush the appointment of Ministers into his cabinet.”