Bad leadership, bane of Nigeria’s problem, says Ogunwale “Jumokol”

A former federal lawmaker, Senator Kola Ogunwale, who represented Osun Central in the Senate between year 2003 and 2007 has recalled how he was attacked in Germany for calling the country a poor nation.

Ogunwale, who spoke on Wednesday, at an interactive session tagged ‘The Frontliners’ organised by Osun State chapter of The Association of Veteran Journalists, said he was attacked after he called Germany a poor country who only depend on African resources for survival while delivering a lecture.

Senator Ogunwale, who noted that African nations though blessed with good resources, have remained underdeveloped due to bad leadership, with many of its leaders hiding resources stolen from different countries in the continent in different parts of the world, especially Europe.

He noted, “I said this in Germany in the year 1993 when I was asked to come and deliver a lecture. I told my audience that your country (Germany) is poor, I told them Africa is the richest but you (Germans) are the poorest. Western nations are the poorest but you are the richest because all the wealth of Africa is being brought to your door.

“If Mubutu Seseseko can take back all his investments in Europe, if Haile Selassie can bring back all his investments in Europe, if Umaru Dikko will bring his own back, your social security will collapse the following day and somebody threw a shoe at me on the podium. I was immediately sorrounded by the police. I was taken back to London.

“We are not suffering from lack of resources, but we are suffering due to attitude of the people we put at the helm and control of the resources.”

He further said the progress of Nigeria after sixty years of Independence was fair when compared to some of the western nations, that were far older in existence.

According to him, “Different kind of things happen to every nation. Nigeria is just 60 something years old. But we all want to compare ourself with either Britain or America that have existed for about 500 years. They have also gone through different types of challenges. All these nations have gone through the type of situation Nigeria is passing through currently.

“Even though the resources we have are enough to make everybody happy. We should know that these nations that are about 500, 600 years old we compare Nigeria with produced those people that are ruling us and the wisdom they put in them is not being used as they are supposed to use it to bring progress to the downtrodden. Rather, they are amassing wealth.”