A prominent Nigerian and entrepreneur, Kingsley Wali has advised Nigerian leaders to put pen to paper to document their experiences while in office. Mr. Wali gave the admonitions in a chat with newsmen on the occasion of the book presentation and commemoration of the birthday and wedding anniversary of Emeritus Professor Dagogo and Dr. Mrs Viniolia Fubara recently in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Wali described as unfortunate the situation where Nigerian leaders who have had the opportunity of holding public offices do not deem it neccessary to document their experiences while in office stressing that it serves as reference for younger generations to imbibe lessons on leadership.
“Could it be the fact that they were not really serving the public while in office. If you truly served the people, honestly there must be something you should tell people whether it was all rosy or there was some form of crises. There should be things you encountered that will inspire people to learn some lessons of life. So if you die with the information of what you experienced while in office, you have not helped the society in anyway,” he said.
The businessman expressed disappointment that people don’t write when the have the opportunity in life adding that refusing to put down these experiences they encountered in private and public, may be seen as deliberately hiding facts from the public and depriving the younger generations of indelible lessons about the public service. Wali stated that many political office holders encountered several ugly and unpalatable experiences in the course of service which according to him should be documented and shared for posterity.
“There are things you encountered while serving the public, some pleasant and unpleasant. Even if in the course of public service, you had issues that led to some uncomfortable situations, may be health challenges or issues with the law, may be you were arrested for whatever reasons, even if you went to jail and came out. There must be something to tell people that will stop other people from doing those things. Most of our political leaders don’t write books on their experiences in office. Most of them don’t have written documents which you can go to libraries and read. May be they are ashamed of their service days in office,” he stated.
He commended Emeritus Professor Dagogo Fubara for documenting his life experiences, stating that the book will serve as reference to teach the younger generations on the essence of humility, perseverance and hardwork as a pathway to success in life.
