NATIONAL: We need to start naming and shaming bad leaders — Rev.Fr Ehusani

REVEREND Fr. George Ehusani, a renowned Catholic priest, has said the country has to do a reappraisal of its value system to fix the leadership problem plaguing it.

The cleric added that this should start by naming and shaming those whose contributions to our national life brought the country to the unenviable state it is.

Ehusani said this while featuring on a programme, ‘Citytalks with Reuben Abati’ monitored by Naija Times on Saturday.

Fr. Ehusani noted that leaders should not be permitted to turn themselves to conquerors as seen during the era of slavery.

He said, “We are not going to make progress until we name and shame. Our streets, our roundabouts, there are status honouring these people. You see what they do in Europe and America where they began to look for the status of those who superintended and benefited from the slave trade era and pulled them down.”

The prolific author added that it’s an aberration to keep celebrating those who, at a point in the country’s chequered history, seized power from a democratically elected leaders through the jackboot.

According to the cleric, conferring national honours like GCFR on despots is tantamount to “planting villains to be emulated”

He added, “In Nigeria, too, we need to start naming and changing people who superintended this destructive legacy of leadership in our country over centuries.

“We need to identify them and say ‘because this person was responsible for these terrible atrocities we should not have streets named after him. We should not have our airports name after him’.

“When you have people, who shot themselves into power and then became military leaders and they became GCFR (Grand Commander of Federal Republic) for organising violent coups that killed Nigerians elected into power.  By doing this, rather than raise heroes we’re planting villains to be emulated.”

The Reverend Father added, “we need to take leadership formation seriously, adding that the reappraisal of our value system should start from family which is the basic unit of society, Nursery/Primary school, Universities and our religious institutions.

Ehusani, who warned parents against using dictatorial styles in raising their wards, stressed that Nigeria is not going to change if the component units that make up the country refuse to change.