Nigeria’s Vice President, Namadi Sambo on Tuesday extolled the servant leadership qualities of Late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
The vice president, who spoke at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, during the launching of the book “The Servant Leader 2 – 3 Years Presidential Watershed of Late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua”, said the country has lost an apostle of servant leadership as “the late President popularized the concept of servant leadership in Nigeria.”
Mr Sambo said that “it is a generally held belief that the late President Yar’Adua had wanted to genuinely and meritoriously serve the Nigerian people up till the end but his illness and eventual death cut short this avowed intention and service to the nation.”
Remembering Yar’Adua’s inaugural speech when he was sworn-in as President in 2007, Mr Sambo quoted the late president as saying “I will serve with the fear of God, I will serve with humility and I will be a servant leader.”
He recalled the policy principles of Late President Yar’Adua who declared war on the non performing energy sector, noting that “his 7-Point Agenda was coherent and many felt that when that was faithfully implemented, would be the answer to the myriad of problems plaguing the nation and that it will remove the nation from the incessant quagmire of darkness into light.”
Mr Sambo also noted that as a servant leader, “President Yar’Adua was loving and compassionate as he has expressed love for all Nigerians and showed genuine affection for all without discrimination or bias.
“He listened to the people of Nigeria and in so many cases, reversed certain key government decision, he was problem solver who demonstrated empathy for the people he was called to serve, he had served Nigeria faithfully until his untimely end”, the vice president said.
While restating the commitment of the Goodluck Jonathan’s administration to follow the path of transforming the country, Mr Sambo urged Nigerians to support the programmes of the administration as “President Jonathan is honest, patriotic, transparent and fair and would faithfully implement the programmes that would make the country one of the twenty most developed nations by the year 20:2020”.
