Cardinal John Onaiyekan says Nigerians are used to “just sitting and complaining about everything” but do nothing to challenge bad leaders.
The former Archbishop of Abuja Catholic Archdiocese stated this on Tuesday in Abuja during the North Central Zonal Dialogue Conference, organised by Lux Terra Leadership Foundation, in partnership with Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy, and Development.
Onaiyekan urged Nigerians to put elected leaders on their toes and hold them accountable.
He said; “Nigerians have gotten used to just sitting and complaining about everything. They complain about government and politicians, but they do not take their role of citizen participation seriously.
The leaders are happy about this and take full advantage of the docile nature of most Nigerians.”
According to the cleric, only when Nigerians actively use their right of “citizen participation” in governance will the leaders be on their toes and live up to their responsibilities.
The religious leader reminded leaders that once they took their oath of office with either Bible or Quran, they had put themselves under the judgment of God.
Another panellist, Bola Abimbola, Executive Director of Savannah Centre, noted that some of the problems in the country stemmed from a trust deficit between the government and citizens.
Abimbola, represented by Felix Pwol, a director at the centre, said the government needed to focus on national unity, national security, and development.
