A former governor of Borno State, Senator Kashim Shettima, yesterday, said Nigeria lacked selfless and charitable leaders dedicated to meeting

the needs of the less provoked in society.
Shettima stated this in his speech during the investiture ceremony of the”

managing editor, Northern Operation of The Nation Newspaper, Rotarian Yusuf Alli as the 11th President of the Rotary Club of

Abuja Maitama, in Abuja.
He commended Rotary International for their selfless service to humanity, saying they have become the conscience

of the society.
Shettima said: “There’s a reason both religious groups and corporate organizations revolve around the principle of giving

back to society.

Strike we have made an agreement with FG Asuu

“It’s not just to compensate for the negative externalities accumulated in the pursuits of our capitalist and

self-serving interests, but to fill the vacuum around us. “When you look around this country to trace the origin of

our national dilemma, the most glaring shortcoming is always undersupply of selfless and charitable leaders, whether in politics or business,

socio-cultural groups, or local communities.’’
As a time-tested group, he said Rotarians have figured out the danger of playing down

the conditions of the needy, especially those in our immediate surroundings.
“Your Club, which operates from the nation’s capital and

a district recognized as a habitat of some of the nation’s most influential people, is privileged to grasp the socio-economic

contrasts that have widened the nation’s poverty gap in the past years.
“We must never give back to society just

to appeal to ourselves, for that seems to be the mindset. ‘’These clubs have ridden on the compassion and integrity

of good people like you to serve as oases for the downtrodden,’’ he said.
Shettima said the Club has taught

us much more than what it means to have empathy and, more importantly, act on it.
He said, “Rotary clubs

have become the conscience of the world, for they remind us of the debt we owe our society. “We must

never yield to the temptation to believe that giving back to the society that produced us is a favour to

the needy. “While this is the mainstream thinking, we can’t afford to understate the circumstances that gave us our good

start in life and that doing so would come at great risk. “Every society, just like nature itself, abhors a

vacuum and so the alternative to giving to those at the lowest rungs of our economic ladder is a calamity

for which none of us is prepared.

“The society isn’t the beggar here. This society is the source of the

material possessions over which we scrutinize our balance sheets to determine the size of charities to dispense or authorize it

“We are merely giving back to our giver, and that’s because none of us is prepared for the worst implication

of glossing over these vacuums in which the majority of us are trapped.’’

Shettima said: he is not surprised that Rotn. Yusuf Alli was chosen as the 11th president of the Rotary Club

of Abuja Maitama. “He deserves to be so named,” he said, adding: “Yusuf Alli’s life is a remarkable study in

dedicated labour; professionalism; and a deep sense of duty. “These were the essential building blocks of the life he has

lived, over several decades, as a journalist”.
“Today, he has become recognised, as a leading authority in investigative journalism, in

our country. “His colleagues, from near and far, recognise the incredible hard work, that he puts into every story, that

he then pursues, and the excellent quality of his outputs, in the professional area or field.
that’s what shettima said. https://leadership.ng/nigeria-in-need-of-selfless-leaders-shettima/