Mr Adeboye Kalejaiye, former, Special Adviser, Lagos State Governor on rural development and Town Planning said that Nigeria urgently needs a good leadership that would liberate us from shackles of oppression and servitude.
Kalejaiye made this assertion during media briefing to preview of his new book and celebration of 61 years birthday.
Title of the book: “Undeterred: The Pendulum Swings on Under The Chairmanship of Hon. Babatunde Balogun, Chairman, APC Lagos State”.
He said that few leaders that had a semblance of good mission and vision for the society were either not allowed to get there or sacrificed on the altar of tribalism and nepotism.
“Many are visionless and therefore do not have a sense of direction, our nation is in need of good leadership.
“Leadership that is expected to set the pace for which followers should emulate has been conspicuously absent.
“Just few leaders truly understand what leadership is about.
“Majority have been bedeviled by self-centredness, pride, covetousness, and inordinate accumulation of wealth at the detriment of the society,” Kalejaiye said.
He noted that the purpose of this book was to talk about myself, as in the totality of my being, starting from my cradle, to where I am today.
“To talk about my ego is to talk about my personal self-esteem and self-importance, which translate to rise to prominence that constitutes the making of my person.
“The varied events that have thus far characterized my life history have been X-rayed and chronologically put down in black and white in twelve chapters,” Kalejaiye said.
He added that he grew up in a polygamous home, who was the third child in the hierarchy of children.
“Not born with a silver spoon, not even in the best environment but raised in the barracks, where negative influences abound.
“Though the best of education was understandably impossible, I was privileged to have an unbridled primary school education spanning thirteen schools in six years and secondary school education.
“The road to my educational career as earlier pointed out was bumpy and akin to the Israelites’ journey to the Promised Land.
“However, destiny played a vital role in all of this. Disappointingly, the society in which we live has not helped matters,” Kalejaiye said.
Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola(SAN) Minister of Works and Housing who wrote the foreword of the book said that his experience while reading the book was like recalling memories of a lost world.
“A world where the sterling virtues of hone said. truth, hard work and discipline reigned supreme.
“A world where the husband and father, wife and mother and son or daughter knew their proper places in the family hierarchy and took actions that upheld the integrity and reputation of the family.
“It took me to that world where youthful exuberance was exhibited in healthy competitions that portrayed the best of societal values.
“The building blocks of nation-building and human development, the experience provoked in me a nostalgia that still lingers,” Fashola said.
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