Centenary Celebrations: Negative Tendencies Retarding Nigeria’s Devt. Must Be Addressed – Balarabe Musa

A frontline politician, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, on Sunday said while Nigeria at 100 was worth celebrating it was important that the nation must address the negative tendencies undermining its development.

Musa, however, said in an interview in Kaduna that in spite of its problems, Nigeria has great potentials for growth.

“In spite of the problems, 100 years of Nigeria’s existence is worth celebrating.

“This is because it would have been a different story and a most likely pathetic story if Nigeria had not become one.

“As one country, Nigeria is not only big in territory but a very prosperous country, taking into account its human and material resources.

“We have problems, no doubt, but all other countries in the world had their developmental challenges too”, the former governor of the old Kaduna state in the Second Republic said.

Musa, however, said there must be conscious changes in the nation’s socio-economic and political system for Nigeria to overcome its problems.

“There is the need to change the socio-economic and political system controlling all developments in the country, to make it people-centred and engender patriotism.

“Presently, the political leadership produced by this system is based on self-interest, not national or in the people’s interest.

“That is directly responsible for the negative state of the nation.

“It is particularly responsible for the disabling level of corruption, stealing and criminal waste of resources, as well as insecurity, unemployment and inadequate level of educational development”.

Musa said such negative tendencies retarding Nigeria’s growth and development could be effectively reversed through leadership re-orientation and patriotism.

The former chairman of the de-registered People’s Redemption Party (PRP) said part of the re-orientation must encourage leaders to deploy the nation’s enormous resources towards wealth-creation and overall economic growth.

He also said the country must give priority to the issue of security and employment generation, saying they were key to any nation’s stability and economic prosperity.

“These measures will address current concerns by all sections of the country questioning whether Nigeria should continue to exist as one nation”, Musa said. (NAN)