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Nigerias were treated to a spectacle at the Nigerian Bar Association’s 62nd Annual General Conference (NBA-AGC) held in Lagos a few days ago. Some presidential candidates for the 2023 general election were at the conference to tell Nigerians what they will do to rescue the country from the myriad of problems besetting it. This opened the conversation on the state of the nation and what Nigerians expect from the presidential candidates.
No doubt, Nigeria is facing many challenges today. Chief among them is insecurity. There are also corruption, crisis in the education and health sectors, epileptic power supply, economic meltdown resulting in high inflation, unemployment, acute poverty, hunger and many others. The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, particularly lamented that Nigeria was more disunited now than ever before. Noting that the country had never experienced the level of poverty, insecurity and unemployment currently ravaging it, he noted that he had empanelled a committee to draft an amendment to the Nigerian Constitution that would address some of the country’s structural problems. He pledged to unveil the draft constitutional amendments from day one.
He added that he had been involved in the struggle to return the country to democracy since the military days, and that he had five key areas that any leadership must confront. To achieve those key areas, Atiku said we needed to achieve peace by giving every part of the country a sense of belonging. It was on this premise that he advocated for restructuring and devolution of powers to states and local governments. According to him, regional governments achieved much when during the First Republic.
The Presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, was represented by his running mate, Alhaji Kashim Shettima. In his speech, Shettima said he and Tinubu were the best candidates for Nigeria because of their capacity, skills and past achievements in office. He said their government would replicate the Lagos experience all over Nigeria.
“In these days when others are talking of Artificial Intelligence; when others are talking of nanotechnology, biotechnology, we need a leader with the skills set, understanding of the global economy to shepherd us in this age. If you get one, you are getting one for free. He’s the city boy. I am the golden boy,” he boasted as he urged his audience to align with the vision of the APC candidate. The standard-bearer of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, dwelt partly on the nation’s security challenges. According to him, Nigeria needs an urgent transition from a highly insecure country to a secure one; from a disunited country to a united one and from corruption and lawlessness to a successful country. He noted that Nigeria was in a mess because of the cumulative effect of bad leadership and that the coming election would not be about tribe or religion but about competence and character. “Nigeria has been qualified to be a failed state. We have the two or three biggest characteristics of a failed state. One is when you are no longer in charge of your territory. Today, we are among the top terrorised countries in the world. We are among the top kidnapping countries in the world. Banditry has taken over part of the country and Nigerians are being killed,” he regretted.
The keynote speaker, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, decried the leadership deficit in the country. According to her, Nigerians don’t have heroes in the mould of the late Professor Dora Akunyili and Gani Fawehinmi to look up to anymore. She lamented, “We are starved of heroes. Our young people do not find people to look up to anymore. Nigeria is in disarray. Things are hard and getting harder by the day.” Arising from the NBA conference, there is a consensus that Nigeria is broken and needs fixing. We are at a crossroads. So, the expectation is that those jostling to lead Nigeria from 2023 must be above board.
The implication of this is that Nigerians should no longer take things for granted. They must discharge their civic responsibilities by going out on the election day to vote without allowing such sentiments as tribalism, religion and other negative tendencies to becloud their sense of reasoning. They should be careful in choosing the next president because leadership is key. The next president should be one who will fix the country’s numerous problems. Never again should we be entangled by the type of poor leadership we are currently saddled with. We commend the NBA for providing the platform for Nigerians to assess their presidential candidates. We need more of such platforms to enable Nigerians to assess and make up their minds on their ideal candidate.
