Former President Goodluck Jonathan has warned that Nigeria will not achieve meaningful development until it abandons the practice of selecting political leaders on the basis of religion, ethnicity, language and other narrow considerations.
Speaking on Saturday at the Herbert Macaulay Colloquium in Lagos, Jonathan said the country must prioritise competence and merit in leadership recruitment. He stressed that even highly qualified individuals cannot drive progress if selection remains tied to divisive factors.
“We are still suffering from political leaders being recruited based on religion, language and all kinds of things,” he said. “Sometimes it is even beyond Muslim or Christian. I know of a particular state in southern Nigeria that 99.9 per cent of them are Christians. But if you don’t belong to one particular denomination, you cannot be the governor of the state.
“That is the kind of thing we do. So no matter how good you are, until we move away from these primitive ways of recruiting political leaders, this country cannot go.”
The colloquium marked the 162nd anniversary of the birth of Herbert Macaulay, born on November 14, 1864, and regarded as one of the founding figures of Nigerian nationalism.
Jonathan listed leadership challenges, institutional weaknesses, corruption, policy inconsistency, inadequate infrastructure and insecurity among the factors holding Nigeria back. He described the country’s current democratic system as “opaque and amorphous” and called for comprehensive reforms that would strengthen popular participation, the rule of law, respect for human rights, judicial independence, accountability, pluralism and a vibrant civil society.
He also urged greater investment in functional education and the establishment of research-intensive universities capable of driving technological advancement. Citing the examples of India, Singapore and South Korea, Jonathan said those countries had used quality education to achieve significant development.
“You can’t go anywhere with weak educational institutions,” he said, adding that Nigeria must deliberately invest in its best brains and build world-class universities to compete globally.
Paying tribute to Macaulay and other early nationalists, Jonathan said the greatest honour the country could give them was not simply to celebrate their sacrifices but to build a nation that reflects the ideals for which they fought.
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