Atedo Peterside lists six mistakes that derailed Nigeria

A delegate at the ongoing National Conference, Atedo Peterside has listed six mistakes, he believes led to the stunted growth and development of Nigeria.
According to Peterside, some of the mistakes by the nation’s leadership include: the inability of political leaders to rein in their followers; the 1966 Military coup; deceit by well-meaning Nigerians after the coup; introducing religion into politics; lack of application of well-established corporate governance rules to solve those problems; and the enthronement of injustice and perverse incentives.
Atedo Peterside said, “Some mentioned that the first mistake was in 1965.   What was the mistake of 1965? It was because the political leadership did not know how to rein in their followers.”
“Then, second mistakes: We organized ourselves in a way that some young military officers could launch an audacious attempt to take over Nigeria and its army.”
“The mistake number three: After those young military leaders destroyed the structures as we know it, the elders and everybody else started to compete to take advantage of their naivety.”
Furthermore, Peterside said that, “Mistake number four: We brought religion into politics.  He pointed out mistake number five to be our refusal to apply well-established corporate governance rules to solve those problems.   “Mistake number six: We destroyed the civil service and enthroned negative incentive.”
He said, “I have listened to all delegates very carefully over the last few days and I noticed there is some convergence in thoughts because it looks like the earlier speakers have influenced the later speakers.”
“This is a good sign. The president said in his speech that we cannot continue to proffer yesterday’s solutions to today’s problems.  Why do we continue to do this?  Perhaps,   it is because we have not fully understood some of the mistakes of yesterday.”

Report by Sampson Ikemitang