Elder statesman and a chieftain of the Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, Ayo Adebanjo, has decried the quality of leaders Nigeria has had over the years.
Chief Adebanjo made this known during a special edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today in commemoration of the country’s 59th independence anniversary.
“We are not where we should be because we have not been lucky to have the right people at the top,” he said while reviewing the state of the nation at 59.
Adebanjo believes that the myriads of challenges the country has faced since 1960 and its inability to find solutions to them are mainly due to the quality of leaders.
As far as he is concerned, the country was only fortunate with governance from 1960 to 1963, the first three years after it gained independence from Britain.
According to him, it’s been a thing of shame to those who struggled to liberate Nigeria from the shackles of colonialism.
He said, “It has not been impressive. To those of us who fought for independence, it is a big disappointment. We are not where we should be.
“The people whom we have been unfortunate to have, have not had the direction of those who fought for independence mostly because the army did a lot of havoc.
“Their intervention was not a blessing. And you see where we are today. The people who fought for independence did not get into office after independence.
“We were lucky at the beginning from 1960 to 1963, which was the best period for civilian government. Since the army intervention in 1966, we have not been fortunate.”