BY YEMI OLAKITAN
EMINENT Nigerians, including former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku have lamented the crises that have bedeviled the nation since independence, despite the availability of huge human and natural resources.
They spoke at the presentation of a book Profiles in Leadership by veteran journalist, Folu Koyi in Lagos.
The book chronicles the lives of great men and women who have contributed to the advancement of the nation in different fields of human endeavour.
The chairman of the event, Anyaoku, acknowledged the great disappointment that any serious reader of the book would feel. He wondered why a country, which has produced the galaxy of achievers described in the book, should still be in a state of underdevelopment.
He noted that the country was far from realising its true potential. According to him, the main reason for this situation is that political leadership over the years had failed abysmally in finding ways to give the country the full benefit of its indisputable human resources.
He commended the author, who he noted, had begun research into the material for the book as far back as 14 years ago. He further congratulated the author on producing such an invaluable source of reference for any one who is interested in knowing more about the leading people and professions in Nigeria over the last 100 years.
“I would like to commend Folu Koyi for the depth of his research and his admirable judgment in selecting the people to include in the book. In Nigeria, where we seem to have established a culture of self-promotion of individuals by families or groups in the form of paid advertisements in our newspapers, deciding on who are true leaders in our national life must be a tricky and demanding task,” he said.
Anyaoku said further: “I would like to observe that in my experience of having to visit over 100 countries around the world, I know of no other country where publications of all sorts of congratulations fill the national dailies. This is why Folu must be commended for taking the time to recognise our true leaders.”
Source: The Guardian, 12th October 2011
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