Nigeria Bedevilled By Bad Leadership, Corrupt Mindset — Jega, Kukah

A former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, and Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Dr Matthew Hassan Kukah, have said Nigeria’s development has been stalled by prolonged bad leadership and a flawed moral foundation.

They spoke at the Nasarawa State 30th anniversary lecture marking the creation of the state on 1st October, 1996, in Lafia.

Jega delivered the keynote address titled, “Nasarawa State at 30: From Foundation to Transformation,” while Kukah spoke on “Unity in Diversity: Three Decades of Building a Cohesive Nasarawa State.”

Jega said Nigeria has suffered “the tragic misfortune of being bedevilled by bad leadership” in two phases — prolonged military authoritarian rule that was undemocratic and without consultation, and civilian rule since 1999, which raised high hopes but has left many citizens, especially youths, disillusioned by poverty, unemployment and doubts over electoral integrity.

Using Nasarawa as a case study, Jega said the state, one of the six created by the late head of state, Gen. Sani Abacha, started with the least.

Quoting former Governor Abdullahi Adamu, he said at creation it had “one tarred road, no water board, and no secretariat,” with an estimated population of 1.5 million and 3.7 per cent IGR contribution in 1997.

Thirty years later, he said, the state now has about 3.3 million people, 11 per cent IGR, and growth across sectors. Public primary schools rose from 1,402 to over 2,100, secondary schools from about 150 to 490, tertiary institutions from 2 with 2,500 students to 18 with over 60,000 students, primary healthcare centres from 150 to 895, and tarred roads from 200-300km to 1,500km, with 639km in the last seven years.

On living standards, he cited World Bank, NBS and UNDP surveys showing poverty dropping from 70 per cent in 1996 to 62 per cent in 2026, with official NBS 2022 data putting Nasarawa at about 57 per cent, while multidimensional poverty remained at 79.8 per cent. Pipe-borne water coverage moved from 5-8 per cent at creation to 29 per cent urban coverage, while female school enrolment rose from 68,000 to 333,000.

Jega described Governor Abdullahi Sule’s seven-year administration as “a significant ray of hope” and transformational, citing investments in urban renewal, health, agriculture, education, industrialisation, and mining, noting that, if sustained, Nasarawa could become “the state to beat.”

Kukah, in his presentation, said managing diversity remains Nigeria’s greatest failure. Citing the encounter between Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, who said “let us forget our differences,” and Sir Ahmadu Bello, who said “let us understand our differences,” Kukah said Nigeria has done neither after 66 years of independence.

He anchored his lecture on Chapter Two of the 1999 Constitution, which makes citizens’ welfare the primary purpose of government, and said Section 14 on Federal Character is about creating a sense of belonging. He said Nasarawa, with over 30 ethnic groups across 13 LGAs, including Eggon, Alago, Mada, Bassa, Tiv, Fulani, Jukun, Hausa and Idoma, is a miniature Nigeria.

Kukah listed the state’s potential, including Farin Ruwa Waterfalls in Wamba, with a planned 20MW hydropower plant; Hunki Oxbow Lake in Awe; Peperuwa Lake in Doma; 60 small lakes; solid minerals; and industrial investments like Dangote, but warned that progress is meaningless if it does not change people’s lives.

He said belonging is understood by children in Wamba, Doma and Awe through scholarships, roads and functional schools, not speeches. He recalled proposing, as Vice-Chancellor, that each LGA contribute 1-2 per cent of its budget to the state university to ensure that students from all 13 LGAs could study Medicine, Engineering and Architecture.

Kukah said agitations for new states are driven by a lack of belonging and warned against religious privileging. “At the end, Nigerians only agree that the country is corrupt; they are not seeking to end corruption, they just want their own man to participate in the corruption. We can’t build a country on such a morally flawed foundation,” he said.

He paid tribute to the late Gen. Sani Abacha, who created Nasarawa in 1996, describing him as “Nigeria’s most vilified head of state, but a man who did quite a lot of things.”

Both speakers concluded that Nigeria must move from annual-budget conservatism to farsighted transformational leadership built on justice and inclusion.

In his address, Governor Sule called on states in the North Central to stand up and claim economic and security independence, saying the era of waiting for federal allocation must end.

Sule said Nigeria is drifting towards greater regional autonomy in the economy, administration and security, especially with the gradual push for state police, which signals a transfer of power to states.

He said the point was raised by former Governor Turaki Keffi and has become urgent after the North Central featured prominently in recent discussions at the UNGA in New York on solid minerals. According to him, the zone holds the key to Nigeria’s industrial future – Benue and Kogi have made a name in cement production, Nasarawa in lithium, while Plateau has been known for tin long before now.

“This is the great potential that we must come together to give us the independence we need. The era of states saying that we are waiting on federal allocation should be over. We have the capacity, we have the leadership, we have the competence, we just need the vision and the commitment,” Sule said.

The governor said the creation of Nasarawa State on 1 October 1996 was a defining moment that fulfilled a long agitation for political participation and development closer to the people, and that 30 years later, diversity remains the state’s strength.

He pledged that his administration will continue to work until kidnapping ends in Nasarawa, noting that lessons from the anniversary lectures delivered by Professor Attahiru Jega and Bishop Matthew Kukah would guide the state toward building a more cohesive and self-reliant North Central.