General Muhammed: Today’s leaders are not selfless like my father — Risqua Muhammed

2026-02-13 - 07:49

Risqua Muhammed, son of the former head of state, in this brief chat with Vanguard’s Bashir Bello, says today’s leaders do not have the spirit of selflessness. He opines that “anti-corruption, integrity, honesty, fairness, justice, and equity” which his father stood for are missing in today’s governance sphere. Excerpts: It’s 50 years of remembrance of your late father, what do you have to say about his legacies? I think it’s a time for deep reflection and a time to appreciate the legacy that late General Murtala Ramat Muhammad left behind. It’s a time for us to appreciate what our heroes past and our former leaders, late leaders have done. 50 years later, you are still remembered for the things that you did. It tells us that we need to appreciate what they’ve done, we need to celebrate what they’ve done, and we need to be able to propagate what they’ve done so that those generations of today and the ones yet unborn can understand the sacrifices that our heroes made to make our country what it is today and to make it better. What lessons can be learnt from the legacy of General Muhammed? What I can say is that the labour of our heroes’ past must never be in vain. What I mean is that the late General stood for certain things. He stood for anti-corruption, he stood for integrity, he stood for honesty, he stood for fairness, he stood for justice, for equity. If you don’t have those elements in a society, then progress will be a problem. So we need to go back and bring back all those things that our leaders sacrificed for and died for. And not only in Nigeria, but across Africa. We fought for the emancipation of our brothers and sisters in Angola, in Namibia, in South Africa. Our past leaders are known for selfless service to the nation, but the present crop of leaders place their self interest first, their family and friends. So as masses, if you don’t know anybody you are a goner. We can’t continue that way. It is necessary we get leaders who are committed to selfless services and who will place the interest of the public above any other thing.