Lack of Good Leadership, cause of Nigeria’s problems, says VC

Mariam Sanni, Abuja

The Vice Chancellor, University of Abuja, Prof. Abdulrasheed Na’Allah, has attributed Nigeria’s problems to lack of good leadership.
Speaking at the maiden university’s students’ leadership training and lecture series organised by the students affairs division, the vice chancellor said leadership is a major issue of our nation.
According to him, “I am one of those, who always feel that, if we have good leaders, we will have good followers. Because sometimes, followers look at the leaders, they want to see what they do, so that they can respond. “ Some other people feel that, it is the followers that create leaders. And that if the followers are bad, the leaders are certain to be bad, but I do not agree with that and that is just me.
“We at this university have put together this programme because we feel that our students, who are leaders even at this level of their leadership, must have to understand what issues are and where they must position their leadership strategies. “
He commended the Dean of students affairs division of the university, for always been ever progressive in bringing on board new ideas, to enable the institution chat a new way.
The former special adviser on students and youth to former president Goodluck Jonathan, Jude Imagwe, while speaking at the event said, “We elect people that become rulers and don’t want to become leaders. They don’t want to mentor anybody. So, if you attached yourself to them, you become a potential pest to them and this is not how a society will grow. A society grows when fathers and leaders like the VC, give people the opportunity to explore their potentials. Give young people the opportunity to interact among themselves and learn in one way or the other from what we have to share.
“As a student, after this place, what do you want to be remembered for? Two things applied to our studentship, after you have been given your certificate, they said your certificate is giving to you in character and learning. The character is the one that drives you of what you have learnt in the university.
The right of a student is tied to the responsibility that you are a student, you have a right to want a good academic environment for learning, but you have a responsibility to be responsible to the constituted authority. You have a right to want a lecturer to come to class at the time you want them to come to class, you equally have a responsibility to conduct yourself as a student before the lecturer. You have a right to graduate and to get a better job. But you have the responsibility to know that some of our parents do not have the opportunity of going to school.”