Former British prime minister, Tony Blair yesterday said leaders who desire to develop their nations must set their priorities right and be focused on what they intend to achieve.
Mr Blair spoke during an audience with President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. "There is a gap between vision and reality and leaders must know how to do whatever they set out to do, given the reality of their situations," Mr Blair said, adding that knowing what to do is not hard.
Mr Blair, who runs the African Governance Initiative, also said leaders must recognise the importance of proper and efficient scheduling of their engagements, in order to make maximum use of the limited time available for governance.
Ready to share experience
He told Mr Jonathan that he is ready to share his experience with him and expressed satisfaction over what he said was Mr Jonathan's disposition to improve the potentials of Nigerians.
"I am working with Elumelu foundation as part of my Africa campaign solution," he said. "We have been working on charity and how to improve systems on governance solutions in Liberia and Sierra Leone where we are working on partnership. I have been to Abuja a couple of times and I just feel there is enormous promise and potential here and I will be glad to do all I can, not just to improve relations between Britain and Nigeria, but also because when I was in office, Africa was such an important passion and I have been in Abuja a couple of times and I think I like what I saw and there are enormous potential here that can be exploited." Mr Blair commended Mr Jonathan's focus on areas such as improving the infrastructure in the country, agriculture and power.
"I think the president has absolutely got the right priorities and the toughest challenges when he was in government, he is getting it done. He is focused on getting things done according to people's expectations," he said.
Mr Jonathan said Nigeria is committed to global peace and would continue to support any effort at ensuring peace and development.
He praised Mr Blair's collaboration with the Elumelu Foundation, adding that Africa would benefit from the former British prime minister's experience and effort.
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