Former President Goodluck Jonathan has lamented how Nigeria has always gotten it wrong in leadership.
This is even as he attributed the wrong choice of political leaders to religious and tribal sentiments.
Jonathan, who stated this in an interview on ‘Talking Books African’, a programme by the Rainbow Book Club, said that Nigeria’s strong adherence to tribal and religious sentiments remain one of the biggest obstacles to national development.
He tasked Nigerian youths to desist from choosing leaders based on tribe or religion, stressing that it should be based competence and capacity.
According to the ex-Nigerian leader, 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.
“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,” Jonathan said.
