Sen. Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment, says without President Muhammadu Buhari’s leadership style, the experience of Nigeria would have been like that of Venezuela and some nations in severe crises.
Ngige, therefore, described leadership as very critical to the survival of any human society.
He said this after his induction as a Distinguished Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Corporate Governance (INSLEC) on Wednesday in Abuja.
INSLEC is a leading global professional body of both present and aspiring leaders, entrepreneurs and people in corporate governance.
Ngige made this known in a statement by Mr Charles Akpan, the Deputy Director, Press and Public Relations in the ministry.
He said that Nigeria was passing through hard times not because of the current government but as a result of poor planning over the years.
According to him, a good leader must be visionary, see things others are not seeing and things that can be projected futuristically and bring them out for implementation.
“A good leader must be an implementation man; he should be knowledgeable because, after the vision, he will dissect and crystalize them; he should be a jack of all trade and master of all.
“He may not score distinction in all but should be able to score distinction in many.
“He must also be courageous to implement hard decisions. If you don’t implement courageously, some of the visions will die or will not be implemented for the good of all.
“He must also be compassionate, knowing when to temper justice with mercy, to show the human part of him.
“He should exude milk of human kindness. I know that our country is going through a very rough time now because we have not planned well. It is not this administration.
”We know we were all dependent on oil. So, when oil prices came crashing and when security issues arose, disrupting production, we were caught napping.
“Because of that, we went into recession. Later on, COVID-19 forced us to go into a second recession. We are not yet out of the woods.
“We thank God. I am part of this government. I know that if we don’t have the kind of leader that we have, who is strong like President Muhammadu Bihari, the experience of Nigeria would have been like that of Venezuela,” he said.