Poor Leadership, Reason For Nigeria Retrogressive Growth – Obasanjo
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, on Monday attributed the slow rate of infrastructure development in Nigeria to lack of synergy between public and the private sector.
Obasanjo, who was the Chairman of the 2017 Annual Seminar of Kaduna Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture [KADCCIMA], said the Nigerian government had over the years paid very little attention to the private sector.
According to him, it is important to develop deep synergy between the two in order to tackle the wide infrastructure deficit in the country and accelerate national development.
The former president explained that the relationship had not been productive because for some time, the public sector regards those in the private sector as “parasites”, who reap from what they did not saw and only interested in making profit.
He noted that the theme of the seminar, `Promoting Public/Private Partnership, as a Panacea for Accelerated Growth and Development’, stressed the need for the government and private sector to work together for the common good of the country. Obasanjo noted that the engagement of more people from the private sector in government is helping to encourage a more robust relationship.
He said that for the country to experience any serious development, it must view the public and private sector as two legs necessary for the country to move forward.
“Nothing would work if the emphasis is on the public or private sector, there must be synergy between the two for reasonable growth,” he said.
The former president also blamed the country’s retrogressive growth to poor leadership. “We are not there, is a fraction of leadership. We are where we are not because of God’s design, given our human and natural resources, but because of bad leadership that could not put the resources to good use.
“The countries that are better than us today are better because they are committed, focused and understands what it takes to develop. “Until we get the problem of leadership right, we will not go anywhere,” Obasanjo said.
