Poor leadership hampering Nigeria’s potential, says IOD

The Chartered Institute of Directors Nigeria (IoD) has decried that Nigeria has not been able to exploit its potential despite uninterrupted democracy in the last 25 years due to poor leadership.

The President and Chairman of the Governing Council of IoD, Tijjani Borodo, made the known at the investiture of the 4th Chairman of the South-East/South-South Zone of the institute in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Borodo said the plethora of problems confronting the nation would continue to be a nightmare unless the challenge of poor leadership was resolved.

He said, “The biggest problem we have in this country is leadership. We must fix the leadership in this country, this is a great country. We are over 200 million people. We have minerals across the Northern part of the country. Look at the oil and gas we have in the southern part of the country.

“So, the question is, why are we not harnessing this potential? It is a question of leadership, I assure you, Nigeria will get to the height it is supposed to be.”

Borodo said with a population of over 200 million people and an abundance of natural resources, the country ought to have surpassed its current achievements.

The IoD boss said the institute was committed to instilling values such as integrity, hard work, commitment, and ethics in its members, emphasising that if leaders embraced these principles, Nigeria would thrive.

On the investiture, Borodo urged the new leadership to prioritise adding value to their members and engaging them in meaningful activities.

The newly inaugurated chairman of the South-South South-East Zone, Innocent Akuvue, pledged to work with his executive members to drive positive changes and among business owners in the zone.

Akuvue stressed that membership of the Institute was important for entrepreneurs seeking to run their businesses efficiently, professionally and ethically.

He said his team would collaborate with past leaders to chart a new course, increase membership, and showcase the value addition of IoD membership.

Akuvue emphasised the importance of corporate governance, effective business management and human resource management.

He said, “I am going to work as a team with my executive members. We need to make a change, we need to change the dynamics. We need to create awareness for our people in this zone.

“Within two years, we should be able to leave a mark; we should be able to change what we met, working in collaboration with past leaders and chart a new course and increase our membership and bring value to members.”