Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative (PLSI) had its formal launch and an independence dinner on Saturday 1st October, 2016 which was done to celebrate the 56th independence anniversary of Nigeria. The event which lasted for about four hours had in attendance several guests from different fields of endeavor. Olusegun Elemo who is the Executive Director opened the event and used the opportunity to call for a TRUE federal structure in Nigeria. Read his welcome address and opening remark below:
WELCOME ADDRESS AND OPENING REMARK AT THE 2016 INDEPENDENCE DINNER AND OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF THE PLSI PROJECT DELIVERED BY OLUSEGUN ELEMO AT REIZ CONTINENTAL HOTEL, ABUJA – NIGERIA ON 1ST OCTOBER, 2016.
It’s my pleasure to welcome you to our first independence dinner and official launch of Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative project. The reason for PLSI is the need to ensure accountable leadership, good governance and development in Nigeria.
Let me quickly bring to your notice that Nigeria as we speak today is suffering from immense leadership deficit in every arm and tier of government and where leaders are lacking, vision will be hazy as such the people will suffer.
The problem we currently face with insecurity, poverty, unemployment, corruption and infrastructure gap are all summed up in the quality of leaders this country has produced in the last few decades. The state of every nation is a true reflection of the quality of reasoning of those who lead it.
There is virtually no region today that has not one or more issues to deal with from the Biafra secessionists in the South-East, to the militant vandals in the South-South, rising kidnappers in the South-West, Boko Haram extremism in the North-East which led to the kidnap of more than 200 young school girls that have remained missing until now and displacement of millions including the ravaging Herdsmen crisis in the North-West and North-Central.
Nigeria has again returned to the debt crisis she was freed from in about a decade plus ago as the Finance Minister recently indicated that the deficit in the 2016 budget may increase to N3 trillion from N2.2 trillion. Nigeria got relieved from the burden of USD 18 billion by the Paris Club of sovereign creditors which is Africa’s largest debt cancellation. Nigeria then used windfall earnings from oil export to pay off another USD 12 billion. What we have right now is another leadership inadequacy.
The recession we are presently in, is a function of a leadership which had its eyes widely opened but refused to see anything. It is not about the falling oil price in the international market. It is not even about the drastic reduction in crude production or the devalued currency. We had several opportunities to avoid being where we are today as a nation but our leaders chose to be here.
The current system of government we are running does not support accountable leadership and good governance thereby slowing down development in the country. Some eminent citizens have called for either a confederate or regional system of government. Irrespective of whichever we opt for, one fact is that this federalism we currently practice is not TRUE.
Why can’t Lagos generate and distribute power if it truly has capacity to do? Why can’t many states including Port Harcourt control the spending of its resources and send a % to FG for few items that should be on the exclusive list? Why should the federal government over burden itself with primary health care and other socio amenities which ought to be the role of Local Governments? Have you ever questioned where F.G. gets FAAC allocations and bailouts from? Why should states than cannot survive exist?
Nigerians today look at their diversity as been too diverse and complex. I dare to say that diversity is less of skin color and ethnic languages; it is more of the state of human minds which many have been unable to overcome with very strong assistance from the political class. No nation under heaven has ever been fully united ever since the time God sent confusion into their midst. Unity is a function of perfection and where imperfect beings exist, unity will always be less than full. Countries have survived on agreements but nations have developed on the basis of unity. The more united they are, the more develop and the less united they are, the less they develop. You can ask the United States of America who practices one of the best democracies in the world.
At PLSI, the task ahead is not an easy one as we will be monitoring budget implementation, government spending, legislative activities, and administration of justice as well as keeping an eye on the electoral process by which leaders emerge, the purpose for which a member of our BoT (Makinde Olanrewaju) has developed a technology application called Ballot Compass to further improve the transparency of elections in Nigeria. This application will advance youth participation in leadership and governance of Nigeria. PLSI will be working with thousands of volunteers who will be monitoring elections in thousands of poling units across the country in 2019 general elections. We look forward to working with Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to achieve this.
As we celebrate the 56th Independence anniversary of our nation Nigeria and the activation of the PLSI project, I want to say that even though the country is free from colonialism on paper, Nigerians are still being colonized and enslaved by their very own brothers and sisters who call themselves leaders. This is the problem we are trying to solve. PLSI cannot solve the entire problem of Nigeria but we believe there’s a part of our nation’s crisis that is facing us and we want to take our own share of this crisis and solve it so generations to come can have a better society to be proud of. We know where PLSI is going, its clear in our minds but what is not clear to us is how we will get there despite our laid out strategies.
The human and financial resources needed to actualize our mandate are not readily at our disposal but one critical question we pose to ourselves is: “why sit we here till we die”? So rather than complain about unavailability of resources, we are taking a leap of faith today to realize a better future for our nation and people. We are not doing what no one hasn’t done before or what no one will ever do; we are simply contributing our bit to this pool of solutions to our nation’s woes. I can assure you that this is not just another foundation without a building but one in which building will stand the stormy seasons ahead. My pledge to you today is that as our value reads, we shall be diligent; we will work with integrity, service and honesty to this cause of accountable leadership, good governance and development in Nigeria. Our WHYs will be driven by reliable data and our HOWs will be supported by relevant technologies.
Thank you all and God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria!
Olusegun Elemo
Executive Director, PLSI