Raphael Ede, Enugu
Bad leadership is the reason while poverty is ravaging Nigeria Executive Director, African Heritage Institution, Afri-Heritage, Prof. Okeke Uzodike, has said.
Uzodike stated this at a 5-day 2018 train-the-trainers workshop, holding at Afri-Heritage Center, Enugu, organised for university lecturers from the departments of Economics and Agro-Economics from different universities.
He explained that the way our leaders handle issues, breeds poverty.
While lamenting that about 60 per cent of Nigerians live below poverty line, he said that many intellectuals and academicians leave en masse for overseas for greener pastures.
“Safety remains a big issue in Nigeria and poverty is also an issue. 60% of the population are living in abject poverty, ” he laments.
The Professor of political and analytical institution, said that such poverty was occasioned by “the way our political economy is structured. The way our leaders handle issues bring about poverty. Who makes policies and what policies do they make?” he queries.
He pointed out many Nigerians especially intellectuals are leaving Nigeria in droves in search of greener pastures abroad because the leaders are not making things conducive in the land and added that Nigeria lack medical doctors because doctors trained in Nigeria prefer to practice abroad where they could be better remunerated.
He said that Afri-Heritage through seminars and workshops like this are being used drive development in Nigeria. He said that it was for this reason that Professors Anikpo, Soludo, Mbabefo, Mr. El Rufai and Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala established Afri-Heritage where issues that can bring development are discussed.
Speaking on the topic of the workshop tagged: Econometrics for Policy Analysis, Dr. Nathaniel Urama, a resource person and a lecturer from UNN, explained that the training is to enable the participants to add to what they already knew in order for them to impart it to their students who in turn would pass it on for the overall development of the society.
Urama said that the essence of the training is not for the participants to hoard the idea and become consults but to share the information for the benefit of all.
“We are teaching you so that you will teach others. It is going to be interactive,” he said.
About 50 lecturers are participating in the 5-day workshop.