Amachree made this known on Saturday in Lagos State during the Afrikanwatch Network annual lecture titled, “A New Nigeria, with innovative ideology, devoid of hypocritical leaders.”
A retired Assistant Director of the State Service, Dennis Amachree, has urged Nigerians to kick against recycling of leaders, whose families have been in the political space for years and have nothing to show for it.
Amachree made this known on Saturday in Lagos State during the Afrikanwatch Network annual lecture titled, “A New Nigeria, with innovative ideology, devoid of hypocritical leaders.”
He stressed that the current politicians lack the ideology to give birth to a new Nation.
He went further to examine the leaders Nigeria had had since independence from Britain and asked whether Nigeria had been led or ruled since independence.
“Mention one president that actually led this country, and think of how many rulers Nigeria have got, at the presidential level, since independence. A political aspirant recently said that he will turn Nigeria around if he is allowed to “RULE.” So it is very apparent that most of our politicians see the opportunity of public service as a chance to RULE over the “slaves” or “subjects” of Nigeria. But alas, Nigerian is not a monarchy to be ruled over; neither are we slaves in our own country.
"Most of the country’s politicians say one thing, but do something else. Nigerians are used to all the campaign promises of what they will do for the populace, but continue to behave in a different way.
"Under such leadership, the citizens can see bare faced corruption, nepotism, unimaginable fraud and a total disappearance of integrity. Nigerians have been caught up in the quagmire of hypocritical leadership, where we are at the mercy of the politicians.
"In a democratic system, where we the People are supposed to be the repository of power, politicians have relegated the citizens to the background where, if a politician built a five kilometers of road, we come out with our drums, dancing and thanking the governor or president for providing that infrastructure, as if he built the road with his own personal money.
"It is simple, the citizens beating the drums are ignorant and the politician is taking advantage of their lack of knowledge.
“It is a truism that most of the politicians todays are ignorant of or and devoid of leadership skills and qualities. Very few politicians do understand what leadership is all about. But most politicians are in public office to appropriate our commonwealth into their personal pockets.
"That is why leadership for development becomes a big problem; a big problem because the fundamental objectives of being in public office are not for development but for personal aggrandisement.
"The political landscape in Nigeria lacks cognitive rigidity when it comes to ideology. Ideological extremism is totally shady, where carpet crossing is a commonality. In the United States, the Democrats are pro-choice (supports abortion), while their Republican counterparts are totally against abortion.
"In such rigidly held beliefs or ideologies; it is rare to see politicians crossing carpet. But in Nigeria, it’s easy to cross the carpet because there are no ideologies or strongly held beliefs that can change the conviction of a Republican to be a Democrat overnight or vice versa.
"The recent outcome of the All Progressive Congress (APC) convention is instructive. If you observe carefully, most of the principal officers of the APC, are defectors of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)? This simply means that there is no ideology that both parties hold very dear.”