A former governorship candidate of the National Conscience Party (NCP) in Lagos, Archbishop Funso Awe has said the problem of Nigeria is not restructuring as many people think but rather lack of good leadership.
He made the point at the ongoing Apostolic Roundtable holding on Thursday, at the Jesus Evangelical Ministry in Allen, Lagos.
Awe is the Presiding Archbishop of the Orthodox Anglican Church in Nigeria. He was the pioneer Chaplain of the Church of Christ the Light, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos and a retired Venerable of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion).
He is a veteran activist and Vice Chairman, Civil Consciousness Global Initiative (CCGI), a body of leaders that advocate truth and righteousness in governance.
At the ART conference put together by Apostle Bolaji Akinyemi, Awe maintained that the problem of Nigeria is lack of righteousness in government.. ‘I believe we need to restructure but our problem is not restructuring but quality leadership.’
He said many are advocating restructuring because they have not enjoyed good governance. ‘If today Nigeria gets a good leader, all the agitations for restructuring will stop. Our challenge is that those who rule us have been too selfish and think of themselves alone’
Awe said Nigeria has unwittingly been restructured over the years from three regions to 36 states but nothing has changed..
‘Right now I can tell you that Nigeria is over governed. There are people who have been elected but are doing nothing. There are people in the house of assembly just collecting money but doing nothing. We elected them to just collect money..’
While emphasising the importance of good governance, he said, ‘ Many Nigerians think if the system is restructured today that things will change. But they will be disappointed if after restructuring things don’t change because the people in government are still the same.
‘So far many of our leaders have come from different parts of the county.. But Nigeria has not changed. Corruption is still rife. I am convinced if we are comfortable nobody will be asking if the president is Muslim or Christian. What we lack is good leadership.’ he maintained..
At the conference currently ongoing, Rev Solomon Adegbolagun, founder of Centre for Righteous Living who passed on about two months ago was given a posthumous award as well as many other Nigerians that have made impact in their chosen fields.
