Immediate past Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, yesterday said that Nigerians, both the leaders and the led, must join hands in building a virile country where everybody would be happy. He said this yesterday while delivering a paper entitled ‘The Role of Responsible Leadership in Industrial Relations, Labour Productivity and National Development’ to participants of Senior Executive Course 36, 2014 at the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Plateau State.

Obi linked failure of leadership among those in positions of authority to lack of proper understanding that leadership is about service to the people. He said that a good leader was one who deprived himself of luxuries of life and office to make sure his people were well looked after. “The way to announce that one had once been a governor or even a councilor is not by the number of cars or houses one was able to acquire, but the ability to be said of one that he was able to use his position to solve the problems of the people,” Obi said.

Speaking further, Obi called on those in government to face governance more than politics for the interest of those that elected them. He called for reduction in the cost of governance, insisting that leaders must apply reason in spending the resources of the state.

“As the governor, I flew business class on international flights but economy more on local flights and I made sure my children flew economy at all times. They may decide to fly first class in future, but that will be at there expense. One of the biggest problems we have in the country, among our leaders, is that they allow positions to change their life styles in manners injurious to the finances of their organisations, sometimes to themselves,” Obi said.

Calling for continued support for the President’s Transformation Agenda, Obi said: “Under President Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria might not have reached the Promised Land, but at least we could see clear and focused policy direction amidst the global challenges nations of the world, including ours, are facing.”

Taking turns one after the other, members of Staff of NIPSS and course participants commended the former governor for his stimutilating lecture. They suggested that he should set up an Institute or be going from one institution to another talking to the younger ones on values and practical leadership.

•Photo shows former Gov. of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi (R), and Director General of National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Prof. Tijjani Muhammad Bande, shortly after Obi delivered a lecture to participants of Senior Executive Course 36 at the Institute . . . yesterday at Kuru.

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