The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Nyesom Wike, has said that the Nigeria needs leaders like President Bola Tinubu to achieve her dreams
The FCT Minister said this while presenting the lecture at the 2025 Distinguish Personality Lecture, titled, “The Nigeria of our Dreams” at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife on Thursday.
Wike pointed out that the greatest challenge confronting Nigeria and militating against its development was the plague of bad leadership.
He agreed with Chinua Achebe, whose seminar, ‘The Trouble with Nigeria’, graphically captured the challenge, when he stated that ‘the trouble with Nigeria is fairly and squarely the absence of proper leadership’.
“This statement, damaging as it may appear, is extremely difficult to controvert.
“Our leaders have, in the main, emerged through self-serving conspiracies that have little or nothing to do with national interests and development.
“This has been the case in both military and civilian contexts,” he said.
He, however, said that Tinubu had stood out as the leader the people need to drive Nigeria to progress and prosperity.
The Minister explained that Nigeria needs a leader that was prepared to lead with sound character and resilience in the face of challenges.
He added that the leader must also be a person who believes in the infinite possibilities that the Nigerian nation exemplifies, while taking solid, proactive, logical and well-informed decisions that would maximally actualise her potential.
This leader, he said, must have the courage and audacity to act, build, innovate and generally expand the frontiers of development with a hands-on approach that would emphasise excellence over mediocrity.
He added that more importantly, the leader of Nigerians’ dream must create a society of free and responsible citizens whose potentials flow freely and free enterprise thrives.
“Let me make bold at this juncture to state that today, in our country, we have such a leader in the person of Tinubu.
“He has shown in several ways and at different times, a stout commitment to the enthronement of democracy in our country, to the extent of even putting his own life on the line in the process.
“He has shown great capacity for engendering development as captured in the unprecedented rapid and exponential development of Lagos state under his watch and even beyond,” he added.
He also said that Tinubu has demonstrated a rare courage by removing fuel subsidy on his first day, upon being sworn in as President.
According to him, leaders before him all spoke about the evil of fuel subsidy, but none had the courage to dare the blackmail of removing it.
“Tinubu did and is fittingly grappling with the inevitable, unintended and sometimes orchestrated consequences of this removal.
“Today, our states have far more resources to develop, the debts are no longer piling and the price of petrol is gradually but steadily adjusting downwards in tandem with the forces of demand and supply and the strict implementation of regulatory conditionalities.
“Also, the overwhelming cry of over-centralisation of power and resources at the national level and the attendant abuse of the doctrine of federalism is being systematically addressed.
“This is being addressed through the creation of zonal/regional commissions empowered to devolve developmental impetus to the respective zones and regions, so that power can truly return to the people.”
On security, Wike said that the situation was being addressed through proper funding and the training and retraining of security forces.
The minister added that Tinubu’s approval for the recruitment of forest guards across the country to take charge of the nation’s forests, bandits and terrorists would no longer find incubation points and free territories to operate.
“Put simply, the era of banditry and terrorism would soon come to an end.
