Former Head of state, retired Gen. Yakubu Gowon, has called for a transparent and people-oriented leadership style which late president Umaru Yar`adua made his watchword.
Gowon said this in Abuja at the first Umaru Yar’adua International Leadership Conference and Awards organised by Global Initiative for Leadership Success on Monday in Abuja.
According to Gown, for the nation to achieve sustainable development, both leaders and other citizens should be morally upright and address the most pressing needs of the society.
Recalling his experience with Yar’adua while he was the governor of Katsina state, Gowon said Guinea worm would not have been eradicated without the rapid and apt response to governance by Yar’adua
He commended late Yar’adua for setting up the Justice Mohammed Uwais Electoral Reforms meant to end electoral malfeasance.
Also speaking, the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the initiative, retired Maj.-Gen Abdullahi Mamman, said the gathering was aimed at interrogating leadership issues with regards to the palace of morality and ethics in governance.
Mamman, while describing the late President Yar’adua, said, “His governance leadership qualities were sterling, profoundly mercurial, and legendary, noting that his administration grew the economy and stabilized the society.
“His audacious, boldness and sincerity of acknowledging in his inaugural speech that the electoral process that brought him to power was flawed and pledged to take concrete steps and actions was enough proof of his honesty’’, he said.
