Former President Goodluck Jonathan has asked young Nigerians to prioritise competence over religion and tribe in choosing leaders.
Speaking in an interview on Talking Books African, a programme by the Rainbow Book Club, Jonathan said Nigeria’s deepening divisions along tribal and religious lines remain one of the biggest obstacles to national development.
The former president said tribe and religion are a major setback to the country’s leadership recruitment process.
“Nigeria today — we are divided along tribal and religious lines, and it worries me. And if we don’t make any changes, which are difficult to make, it may continue to our grandchildren because we started wrongly. There is no effort to make sure we change, and it is a major problem. Most of the problems we have today in the country are because of this division,” he said.
“Young people should know that the issue of tribe and religion is a major setback for this country. It creates problems of leadership recruitment. If somebody is holding a political office and wants to make an appointment, he begins to see that even if Mrs A knows the issue better than Mrs B, and Mrs B is from his tribe, he wants to use Mrs B.
“That is what happens in a system where we tend towards tribe, and that is one of the banes of Nigerian politics. The leadership recruitment process is skewed along tribal and religious interests. So, you see how difficult it is to get the best.
“There are some states where if you come from some parts of the state, you cannot be governor, even if you are the best material at the time. In Nigeria, if you want to contest an election, they first ask: ‘Is it our turn? Is it their turn? Is it the turn of the Muslims? Is it the turn of the Christians? This creates a problem in recruiting the best material.
“You are not assessing the person you want to recruit into a leadership position based on competence; you assess the person based on how he worships his God or the part of the map of the country he comes from.”
‘BREAK THE BARRIERS’
Jonathan warned that tribe and religion have continued to influence appointments and elections, often at the expense of merit.
He recalled the success of the Not Too Young to Run movement, which reduced the minimum age for contesting key political positions, including the presidency and governorship, and urged young people to replicate such kind of effort in changing how leaders are assessed.
“It’s not something you can do overnight. It’s difficult because the elders will continue to be pushing you back, but just like the young people came together and came up with the concept of Not Too Young to Run. Before that time, when we came in 1999, for you to contest for deputy governor, governor, senator, vice president, or president, you had to be 40 years and above,” he said.
“The Not Too Young to Run law has now brought it down to 30. If you remember, when Yakubu Gowon became head of state, he was 32 years old. Then, Alfred Diete-Spiff was 28 years old when he became the military governor of the then Rivers state (present-day Rivers and Bayelsa states), and he did very well. I don’t think we’ve had a governor who performed better than him at the age of 28. So I don’t believe in all these barriers.
“Youths should assess people based on their competence, not how many years they’ve been sleeping on earth. Somebody can sleep for 40 years and know nothing. Another person of 25 years could even be more knowledgeable and more competent to manage society.
“But the key thing is: If younger people can begin to gradually downplay the issue of religion in Nigerian politics, the leadership recruitment process will improve — we will begin to recruit people better.”
Jonathan added that religious and tribal identity should not be a yardstick for leadership, urging youths to lead the charge in dismantling the tribe, age and religious barriers to leadership.
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