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By Lukman Olabiyi
In the run-up to the 2023 general election, three presidential candidates have blamed the challenges facing the country on poor leadership.
This is as Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, said the country was in disarray and in dire need of heroes who can take bold decisions that would help pull it back from the precipice.
Former vice president, Atiku Abubakar (Peoples Democratic Party), former Lagos State Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu (All Progressive Congress) and former Anambra Governor Peter Obi (Labour Party) and Adichie spoke at the ongoing 62nd Nigerian Bar Association Annual General Conference (NBA-AGC) holding in Lagos.
Other presidential candidates who expressed their views on the state of the nation included Prof. Peter Umeadi (All Progressive Grand Alliance), Adewole Adebayo (Social Democratic Party), and Dumebi Kachikwu (Africa Democratic Party).
Tinubu, who was represented by his running mate, Kashim Shettima, urged Nigerians to “follow the person wey know the road” saying Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has established an excellent track record for performance.
“He has mentored men and women who are excelling in different fields of human endeavours and the world is changing and the trajectory of global growth is facing Africa and Nigeria will make or mar that transition.
“Nigerians have the capability to see through the worn-out rhetoric and sophistry of pretentious politicians. Nigerians should follow the man wey know the road. From day one, we will hit the ground running. We’ll promptly address the issue of the economy, ecology, and security.
“And we have the antecedents. I built some of the best schools in Nigeria. Go to Borno and see wonders; you will never believe that it is a state in a state of war. So, we are going to replicate our achievements in Lagos, in Borno and some of the frontline states so that our nation will be a better place. The fundamental issue is pure leadership.”
Drawing attention to Chinua Achebe’s book: ‘The Trouble with Nigeria,’ the former Borno State governor said: “Once we get the leadership function right, everything will fall into place. 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 (Tinubu), I am the golden boy.”
Addressing the audience, Obi said the country was in a mess due to the effects of leadership failure over the years.
The 2023 election, he noted, would not be about religion or tribe but about character and competence to deliver the country from its current mess.
“Out of 200 million Nigerians, 60 percent is supposed to be working. So it (should be) 120 million Nigerians working, but today, Nigerians that are working are under 60 million,” Obi said.
“We are in a physical mess, total physical mess because of all this. Between January this year and April, the total revenue of the Federal Government of Nigeria is N1. 63 trillion but expenditure is N4. 72 trillion. If you minus this, we have a deficit of N3.1. trillion.
“How did we come here? It is the effect of leadership failure over the years. What are we going to do to come out of this? You need to have a visionary, articulated, competent leadership.
“The elections we are going to have next year will not be about tribe nor religion, not connections, not entitlements, it must be elections about character, competence, capacity and solutions to deliver.”
According to him, “investment in intangible assets such as education and power are critical for economic renaissance. What we need to do is the two most intangible assets: security; and law and order . . . provide conducive environment to attract investors, then education and power . . . the economy is driven by these intangible assets.
“Remember, the election we are going to have next year will not be about tribe, not religion, not connection, not entitlements but about character, competence, capacity, and commitment to deliver. We need a bold transition from a poorly secured state to a highly secured state.”
He noted that Nigeria had already become a failed state and needs urgent transition from being a highly insecure country to a secured country and from a country of lawlessness to a country of law and order.
“In all these, it is important that we look at where we are today. Nigeria has qualified to be a failed state. We have indices and characteristics of a failed state.
“Today, we are among the most terrorised countries of the world. We are among the topmost countries of the world where banditry and kidnapping is prevalent. Our most important source of foreign revenue, the oil, is also being ravaged by theft. We are no longer in control of our economy, we are in fiscal mess where our expenditure is much higher than revenue”.
In his remarks, Abubakar said one of his major goals in vying for the 2023 general election was to unite Nigerians to fight insecurity.
On his five-fold plan for the country if elected as president, the former vice president said: “Since the return of democracy in 1998/99, Nigeria has never found itself in such a very critical point in our history. Today, we have had all the negative indices, today, we are all disunited in the nation, we have never experienced this level of poverty. We have never experienced this state of insecurity. We have never experienced this level of unemployment. We have recognised all these negative development in our history.
“When PDP came into power in 1999, despite winning overwhelmingly across the country, we decided to include members of other party in our leadership. That singular action united the country and resulted in calm. I believe that we can have that experience again. It is only when we have a sense of belonging that we can deal with insecurity.”
He also spoke on his plan to managing the economy by abolishing the multiple exchange rate and revolving more power to the state, including handing over Federal owned universities to the states. He said the Federal Government does not have infinite resources.
Adebayo. SDP presidential candidate urged voters to respect the truth about what is going on in Nigeria. He lamented that the country’s crude oil is being stolen by the government. He urged that the attendees of the conference be suspicious of every statistic being thrown around, particularly by old politicians.
In a keynote speech, Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, said Nigeria is in disarray and requires heroes who can take bold decisions to save it. Nigeria is disarray.
“Things are hard and getting harder by the day. We can’t be safe when there is no rule of law. Nigerians are starve of heroes to look up to. Late Dora Akunyili and Gani Fawehinmi were heroes that Nigerians looked up to before now. Unfortunately that era has gone. I believe that NBA is in a position to give the nation heroes that we can look up to lead the nation. Our young people do not find people to look up to anymore.”
She enjoined Nigerians to embrace self-criticism to foster transparency and good governance in the country.
“As long as we refuse to untangle the knot of injustice, peace cannot thrive. If we don’t talk about it, we fail to hold leaders accountable and we turn what should be transparent systems into ugly opaque cults,” she added.
“My experience made me think there’s something dead in us, in our society; a death of self-awareness and ability for self-criticism. There’s need for resurrection. We cannot avoid self-criticism but criticise the government. We cannot hide our own institutional failure while demanding transparency from the government.”
In his welcome address, NBA president, Olumide Akpata, emphasised the need for the legal profession to embrace innovative approaches to legal practice while continuing to serve as the conscience of the public.
“The sessions at the conference are aimed at envisaging the future of the legal profession in particular and Nigeria in general within the context of a rapidly changing world and anticipating the adaptive measures that practitioners will be required to embrace in order to remain relevant and competitive,” he said.
Chairman, NBA Technical Committee on the conference planning, Tobenna Erojikwe said the topic for the conference captures the role of legal practitioners in the society as lawyers especially in a time like this, when there are multiple issues that call for attention and the generality of the people for direction.
“We all know we have what it takes to raise new legal giants from amongst lawyers to shape the legal profession, the judiciary, the polity, and our economy among other things, but this faith in ourselves must be matched with appropriate action that grooms, grows and protects the individual lawyer.”
•Atiku’ll not handover federal universities to states
Meanwhile, media aide to Atiku Abubakar has clarified that he did not say that he would handover federal universities to state governments if he is elected president come February next year.
“The report is false, untrue, unfounded and not a true reflection of what Atiku Abubakar said while responding to a question on devolution of powers, a key component of his policy framework.
“What the PDP presidential candidate referred to was his plans for a phased devolution of power to the federating units.
“The report in some sections of the media is therefore a misleading and false account of what transpired…”
