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From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
Ahead of the 2023 general elections, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, has urged Nigerians to jettison federal character, tribe and religion in their choice of who should lead them.
This is even as he said that there were many opportunities for citizens to actualise their enviable potential in the country.
A statement signed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Office of the Vice President, Laolu Akande, said Osinbajo stated this Tuesday evening in Abuja at a dinner in honour of the 2020 and 2021 Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM) recipients – Prof. Olayinka Olutoye, late Prof. Charles Ejike Chidume (2020); and Prof. Godwin Osakpemwoye Samuel Ekhaguere (2021).
The Vice President said the awards, over the years, were a reminder of the need to pick Nigeria’s ‘first eleven’ for national tasks, irrespective of federal quota, tribe or religion.
Osinbajo added that the glittering cast of award recipients Nigerians for over 40 years reflected more, not only by the variety of achievement, but also by their diversity of origin.
He said: “The award selection process is entirely indifferent to the confessional persuasions, ethnic origins or partisan allegiances of the recipients. It is sensitive only to the rarity and quality of their accomplishments.”
Osinbajo affirmed that the essence of rewarding hard work and talent rather than sentiments and favouritism, in public service and every area of national life, was in order to build a more advanced nation.
The VP said: “Today’s awardees and their predecessors represent the zenith of accomplishments; their exploits tell us what we are truly capable of as a people and the heights to which we would soar if we would set ourselves free from the gravitational pull of parochialism and prejudice.
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“If the pantheon of Order of Merit laureates reflects a representative meritocracy, is it not possible to apply the same standards in selecting those who we choose for leadership at all levels? Democracy grants us not only the right to freely choose our leaders, but the opportunity to choose the best of us, irrespective of any sectional or sectarian considerations.
“If we are to truly make their standards of accomplishment a mainstream phenomenon and our defining national trait, then we must apply the same principles that informed their selection in recruiting those who will represent this nation in every endeavour whether it is in sports or the public service.”
Osinbajo added that the idea of merit and representation (by regions) were not mutually exclusive concepts, because “the Nigerian genius for achievement” can be found nationwide.
“Often in our national discourse, we tend to juxtapose the idea of merit with that of representation as though they are mutually exclusive concepts, and it is suggested that there is an inherently natural disparity in the geographical distribution of talent.
“Yet what the distinguished array of laureates from all over our country that have been assembled over the years shows us is that the Nigerian genius for achievement can be found in every corner of our country,” he said.
The VP stated that opportunities must be provided on a mass scale to enable “all of our citizens actualise their highest potential.”
Emphasising on Nigeria’s human capital potential and the need to pay more attention to the education of the girl-child, the VP stated that “in so doing, we would renew our pantheon of world-beating achievers in every generation and continually rediscover the human capital for perpetual national growth.”
Also speaking, the Minister of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs, Senator George Akume, congratulated the award recipients for their overall economic, scientific and technological contributions to the nation’s development.
