Former Federal Minister Jerry Gana has placed the blame for Nigeria's development troubles squarely on a leadership class he says has grown disconnected from the citizens it governs, according to a report by Guardian Nigeria. Delivering a lecture titled "Rethinking Nation Building for Sustainable Development: Bridging the Leadership/Citizenship Disconnect," Gana argued that the country's challenges are not a shortage of ideas or resources but a failure of those in power to act with integrity, accountability and a genuine commitment to the public good.
Gana pointed to insecurity, injustice, poverty and weak governance as the obstacles doing the most damage to nation-building, and insisted that protecting the lives and property of citizens has to remain government's single most important obligation before any other policy goal can take hold. He said leaders who pursue narrow personal or factional interests instead end up eroding the trust that functioning governance depends on.
Rather than calling for more public sensitization campaigns, which he said Nigeria has already tried repeatedly without lasting results, Gana argued the country needs a fundamental shift in how its leaders conduct themselves in office. He described the fix as a genuine return to good governance carried out with compassion and integrity, rather than another round of messaging aimed at citizens who are not the ones setting policy.