2023: Nigeria requires Emefiele’s capacity, qualities to achieve rapid development —Group

The Nigerian Patriotic Quest (NPQ), a group of the nation’s professionals, mostly based in the diaspora, has said that the country requires the capacity and vast management skills of the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele to achieve rapid development.

They underscored the need for old politicians to quit the leadership stage and allow experienced and intelligent youths to take over the governance of Nigeria in a new order that would enhance steady social and economic growth.

In a press statement signed by the coordinator of NPQ, Ahmed Ja ‘Usman Tijani, the group stated that “we wish to declare for the umpteenth time that the moment is now for Godwin Ifeanyichukwu Emefiele to join the race for the presidency of Nigeria.”

The statement read: “We will continue to make this call because Nigeria is now at a crossroads and will require the care and nurture of a man like Godwin to take her to the promised land of rapid development.

“In the past two decades, Nigerians have entrusted their fate in the hands of professional politicians with barely anything to show for it. 

“If we must be honest to ourselves, we can say without any fear of contradiction, that the professional politicians have succeeded in running the nation aground. 

“We have witnessed a relay race of politicians handing over the baton of leadership from one uneventful administration to the other. 

“Our patience is totally exhausted.  We seek a new shift in leadership from the old to the new. 

We are not carried away by the rhetorics of the old brigade who are now catwalking the national walkways in order to sell to us their expired recipes. 

“It is time for this nation to support and encourage the emergence of a new type of leadership. We yearn for the advent of the servant leader; who is there to serve and not to be served and celebrated. 

“We need leaders who are ready to get their hands dirty in order to wash away the dross of over 50 years of misrule. We believe that Godwin Ifeanyichukwu Emefiele falls squarely into the mold of leadership that the nation deserves at this time. 

“We are astonished by the skillful manner with which the CBN intervened in the major sectors of the economy: agriculture, finance, industries, etc. Only recently, as Nigeria is once again enmeshed in the man-made tragedy of fuel scarcity and power failures, we read of his intention to use the instruments of the CBN to try and bring succour to our long suffering compatriots, ” the statement added.

Meanwhile, the group has chided the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for demanding the resignation of Emefiele as the CBN governor over partisanship.

Responding to a press release recently issued by the PDP national publicity secretary, Debo Ologunagba, calling for Emefiele’s resignation, NPQ said “we are shocked by the deliberate distortion of facts and indeed by the ignoble attempt to deceive the public, through the countless repetition of empty allegations.”

“Our interest in this matter is based on the fact that we are a prominent campaigner for Emefiele to be part of the presidential contest come 2023. We owe no one any apology for this, and we will continue to affirm that Emefiele is the type of leader that this nation needs now.