General
Poor Leadership: Principal or Instrumental Explanation for Nigeria’s Underdevelopment?
By Jerome-Mario Utomi
There is no gainsaying that Nigeria is plagued with development challenges such as widespread poverty, insecurity, corruption, the gross injustice and ethnic politics.
Also, evidence abounds that the nation is in dire need of attention/support from interventionist’s organisations (private and civil society organisations) to help unleash economic development, promotes growth and structural change, with some measures of distributive equity, modernisation in social and cultural attitudes, a degree of political transformation and stability, an improvement in health and education so that population growth stabilizes, and an increase in urban living and employment.
What is yet to be uncovered is/are the principal and instrumental factors that set the stage for this unending national malady, as well as give it a boost to thrive unhindered in the country.
To many, corruption is the principal factor exacerbating the nation’s underdevelopment. It is the single reason Nigeria has remained underdeveloped. Corruption has eaten so deep into the fabric of the nation, so much so that it has become a threat to the very existence of the nation.
Talking about corruption is almost like wasting precious time on an issue that has come to stay and not in any hurry to leave. To some, the challenge is rooted in the ‘Federal Character Principle’ which was introduced into the 1979 Constitution, to among other responsibilities; promote peace, stability, sharing of power and resources amongst the states, has contrary to expectations failed to achieve the primed principle but, lowered education standards in the country, compromised standards and professionalism in the nation’s civil service by ignoring meritocracy.
The rest are on the one hand, particularly of the view that the existence of weak institutions daily undermined by strong figures, region and ‘political Maradonas’ breeds national mediocrity.
Others on the other hand blame the nation’s deformed Federal System which has not only made the centre more attractive with federating states stripped of valuable responsibilities/autonomy but made the nation stand in an inverted pyramid shape with more power concentrated at the top and the base not formidable enough making collapse inevitable if urgent and fundamental steps are not taken,
Definitely, this piece agrees with most of the reasons above being responsible for the situation/challenge in the country. However, I would like to add to what I have just observed above that the problem in the country would need to be looked at in a wider and, indeed, deeper context of the evolution and development in the wider human society particularly in Nigeria where corruption has held all square bound.
At this point, the question may be asked; what impact has leadership had on the development of the nation? Are political leaders in Nigeria patrons or profiteers?
Again, looking at the multiple layers of formal and informal political leadership in post-colonial Nigeria where political leaders are the primary holders, controllers and distributors of power and resources, it elicits the question as to whether poor leadership is a principal or instrumental factor impeding the development of the country?
To add to the contest, talking about principal or instrumental factors impeding the development, Sylvester Enomah clarifies the concern in his book entitled ‘the Nature of Metaphysics’.
According to him, as the term designates it, instrumental cause means a thing or instrument that aids the agent or the principal cause in the process of causation and in the achieving of the effect.
In this case, the instrument is subordinate to the principal cause for direction, principles and initiative. The instrumental cause is handicapped in determining the nature and the character or the type of effect the principal cause intends.
Secondly, the effect is always attributed to the principal cause. The principal cause is intelligent and has the knowledge of what should be the effect of the cause; the instrumental cause may be unintelligent and may not know what may happen or be the effect of the cause. Even if the instrumental cause knows, it is not responsible for the effect of the causality as such.
The instrumental cause is not responsible on the condition that it is a non-living entity, and if it is a living thing, it is at the lower level of existence, for instance, lower animals like dogs. If the living entity is a man, the effect is not attributed to him, or he is not responsible on the condition that he is handicapped, i.e. he cannot hear, think, see, and smell, reason, mentally depraved, underage or under threat.
From the above explanation, it is deductible in my views that leadership challenge is the principal factor responsible for Nigeria’s underdevelopment while corruption, a system of government are but instrumental reasons.
Even Barrister Lee Kuen Yew, pioneer prime minister of Singapore shares similar views.
Let’s listen to him; my experience of developments in Asia has led me to conclude that we need good people to have a good government. However good the system of government, bad leaders will bring harm to their people.
On the other hand, I have seen several societies well-governed in spite of poor systems of government, because good, strong leaders were in charge. I have also seen so many of the over 80 constitutions drafted by Britain and France for their former colonies come to grief, and not because of flaws in the constitutions. It was simply that the preconditions for a democratic system of government did not exist.
Again, sometime in May 2016, the Prime Minister of Britain, David Cameron, described Nigeria and Afghanistan as “fantastically corrupt” in a conversation with the Queen. Cameron had said, “We’ve got some leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain… Nigeria and Afghanistan, possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world.”
Closely related to the above is the reality that the managers of our nation’s economy continue to go against the provisions of the constitutions as an attempt to disengage governance from public sector control of the economy has only played into waiting hands of the profiteers of goods and services to the detriment of the Nigerian people.
While the nation continues to lie prostrate and diminish socially and economically with grinding poverty and starvation driving more and more men into the ranks of the beggars, whose desperate struggle for bread renders them insensible to all feelings of decency and self-respect, the privileged political few continue to flourish in obscene and splendour as they pillage and ravage the resources of our country at will.
Finally, the truth is that if nothing is done to alleviate this appealing situation, it will hopelessly confirm why the nation is stumbling.
Jerome-Mario Utomi is the Programme Coordinator (Media and Public Policy), Social and Economic Justice Advocacy (SEJA), Lagos. He could be reached via [email protected]/08032725374.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The pastor in charge of the Celestial Church of Christ at Agonvi Sea Beach in the Sakpo area of Seme border, Badagry, Lagos State, Mr Afolabi Hodonu, has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
The 45-year-old cleric was apprehended on Thursday, April 2, 2026, alongside his 35-year-old wife, Mrs Success Hodonu, with blocks of skunk weighing about 11kg.
A statement issued on Sunday by the spokesman of the NDLEA, Mr Femi Babafemi, disclosed that the couple were stopped at the Gbaji checkpoint, and a search of their Honda Pilot SUV led to the recovery of the drugs concealed in hidden parts of their vehicle.
Their arrest followed the apprehension of a fake security agent, Mr Sunday Samuel, 35, at the same checkpoint on Monday, March 30, while conveying 24.5kg of skunk from the Seme border to Lagos.
The statement further disclosed that NDLEA operatives also successfully dismantled a drug trafficking syndicate in high stakes intelligence led operations that lasted three weeks during which cocaine consignments concealed in tins of palm kernel extract heading to the United Kingdom were intercepted and the warehouse where the shipments are packaged raided, while all three layers of the group were unravelled, leading to the arrest of the kingpin.
The breakthrough began on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, when NDLEA officers of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Strategic Command, Ikeja, Lagos, intercepted 3.10 kilograms of cocaine at the export shed of the airport. The illicit substance was meticulously hidden inside tins of palm kernel extract intended for shipment to the UK.
Two suspects handling the shipment, Idris Olayiwola Amoo and Akinlami Akinsoji Adedoyin, were promptly arrested.
To unravel the sender and the arrowhead of the drug syndicate, a well-coordinated sting operation was carried out on Thursday, April 2, leading to the arrest of Ezemuwo Joel, who operates under a fake identity as Ajayi.
His arrest provided the link to the syndicate’s head, 52-year-old King Arinze, who was flushed out of a hideout in the Isolo area of Lagos.
He was thereafter taken to his warehouse at 11, Ola Ifa Street, Bucknor, Isolo, where NDLEA operatives recovered 886 tins of palm kernel extract prepared for drug concealment; industrial tools, including a sealing machine, tin openers, paint sprays, 52 grams of cannabis sativa and a pack of hand gloves. Arinze has since confessed to personally draining the oil from the tins to conceal the cocaine.
In a separate operation in Borno state, NDLEA operatives on Wednesday, April 1, intercepted a female drug supplier to bandit groups operating between the North East and Chad, 28-year-old Aisha Adamu. She was arrested along the Gamboru Ngala road in possession of 4.3 kilograms of Colorado, a potent synthetic strain of cannabis.
In Adamawa State, NDLEA officers on patrol along Namtari road, Yola South, on Monday, March 30, intercepted a trailer marked RUW 947 XA transporting 48,000 pills of tramadol. The truck driver, Abdulaziz Ismail Korede, was arrested while a follow-up operation led to the arrest of the recipient, Idris Adamu.
While 60-year-old Idiatu Oladejo was arrested with 15kg of skunk in Isale Osun, Osogbo, Osun state, on Wednesday, April 1, NDLEA operatives, acting on credible intelligence, raided the Itaogbolu forest, Akure, Ondo State, where they recovered 351 kilograms of skunk and its seeds. No fewer than 28,600 capsules of tramadol were seized from a 66-year-old Aminu Usman Gembu when he was arrested at Aliade, Benue state, on Wednesday, April 1.
In Edo State, a suspect, Roland Owie, 37, was arrested on Monday, March 30, following the raid of his warehouse at Egbanke community, Orhionmwon LGA, where 1,378 kilograms of skunk were recovered.
A notorious drug dealer, 40-year-old Ayantola Omodunmomi (a.k.a Iya Elle) was on Wednesday, April 1, arrested at Eleta area of Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. Her arrest follows intelligence and surveillance on how she uses her 11-year-old daughter, Anjola, to deliver illicit drugs to her customers. At the time of her arrest, a 45.6kg skunk was recovered from her warehouse.
By Abba Dukawa
A chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Abdullahi Mahmud Gaya, reaffirmed his commitment to purposeful leadership, declaring he is not given to making empty promises to the electorate.
The politician, who intends to represent the Ajingi, Gaya, and Albasu Federal Constituency in the National Assembly in the 2027 general elections, stressed that his record of performance over two consecutive terms stands as clear evidence of his capacity and credibility, noting that his tenure has consistently delivered beyond expectations.
According to him, governance should be measured by tangible results rather than rhetoric, and his track record reflects a sustained dedication to the welfare and development of his constituency.
Speaking on Sunday while receiving various support groups at his residence in Kano, Mr Gaya reiterated his resolve to consolidate on past achievements and continue championing policies that will advance the collective interests of his people.
He urged them to return to their respective wards, villages, and towns to enlighten the electorate on the visible developmental strides recorded across the constituency over the past three years under his leadership, emphasising the need for voters to clearly distinguish these achievements from previous representations.
Mr Gaya further stated that there is no retreat in his resolve to contest the seat, stressing that the election is not about personal ambition, but about the collective well-being and continued progress of the people across the three local government areas.
He also urged them to take note that the Electoral Act 2026 outlines two methods through which political parties can nominate candidates, adding that these methods are direct primaries and consensus. Direct primaries involve all registered party members voting to choose their candidates, while the consensus method requires aspirants to voluntarily agree on a single flag bearer.
Speaking on behalf of various support groups, Mr Ismaila Ado, who has benefited from a monthly allowance as a volunteer teacher in one of the schools constructed during his tenure, stated that in addition to the allowance, the politician also facilitated his permanent appointment in the Kano State Ministry of Education.
Also speaking, an elder of the APC in Gaya Local Government Area, Mr Iliyasu Muhammad Gamoji, noted that prior to 2015, the communities of Ajingi, Gaya, and Albasu suffered from years of neglect and slow development.
He explained that when Mr Gaya represented the constituency in the House of Representatives, he did so with a strong commitment and a clear sense of responsibility.
He added that, over time, the lawmaker’s efforts brought tangible progress that positively impacted many lives, noting that roads were constructed, schools were improved, and the communities began to receive renewed attention and meaningful government support during his tenure.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The sum of N3.3 trillion has been approved by President Bola Tinubu to finally clear the outstanding debts in the power sector.
A statement issued on Sunday by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga, said the “long-standing debts accumulated between February 2015 and March 2025.”
It was stated that the payment plan for the debts under the Presidential Power Sector Financial Reforms Programme should restore reliable electricity to the country.
“Following verification, N3.3 trillion has been agreed as a full and final settlement, ensuring a fair and transparent resolution,” a part of the statement noted.
“Implementation has begun, with 15 power plants signing settlement agreements totalling N2.3 trillion. The federal government has already raised N501 billion to fund these payments. Out of the amount, N223 billion has been disbursed, with further payments underway,” it added.
The statement said, “With payments reaching the power value chain, generation will be more stable. With power plants supported, electricity reliability will improve.”
“This programme is not just about settling legacy debts. It is about restoring confidence across the power sector — ensuring gas suppliers are paid, power plants can keep running, and the system begins to work more reliably,” the Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Ms Olu Arowolo-Verheijen, was quoted as saying in the statement.
“It is part of a broader set of reforms already underway — including better metering and service-based tariffs that link what you pay to the quality of electricity you receive.
“The government is also prioritising power supply to businesses, industries, and small enterprises — because reliable electricity is critical to creating jobs, supporting livelihoods, and growing the economy.
“The goal is simple: more reliable power for homes, stronger support for businesses, and a system that works better for all Nigerians,” she added.
President Tinubu has commended all stakeholders who supported efforts to resolve the legacy issues in the power sector. He has also confirmed that the next phase (Series II) will begin this quarter.
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