In preparation towards the 2023 general elections, the School of Politics, Policy and Governance (SPPG) which was founded by former Minister of Education, Obiageli Ezekwesili, has asked the electorate to ensure the elect persons they can trust government resources with.
While lamenting the increasing leadership deficit in the country, the school said the 2023 election is a critical time to rescue Nigeria from its current challenges.
Addressing journalists in Abuja at the launch of the alumni association of the school, Chief Executive Officer of SPPG, Alero Ayida-Otobo, said competence, character and capacity should be the defining qualities of leadership.
She said: “The most important thing right now is to use criteria based on three things. One is can the person solve the problems on the ground? Are they knowledgeable? Can people trust him or her with money? Governance is about using state resources judiciously and then we should ask if the person has the track record to use resources judiciously and implement projects that will benefit the people.
“We must ask ourselves if we are interested to rescue the nation from the current challenges. We must educate the man on the street who allows money politics to work on the need to change the narrative. Yes, money is needed to run elections in any part of the world, but that should be money to run the system not to bribe the people. If we are to change the way things are done then we need to pay the price.
“If we look at the current situation, something seems to be changing. People are being activated. Today, they can be Obi-dient or any other name. What that movement is saying is we have had enough. And we better have enough. Many times I wonder how people even survive. We have to push the narrative that enough is enough and that we are tired.”
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
Ayida-Otobo while maintaining that the nation’s leadership recruitment process lacks credibility, said it was a major factor that has retarded Nigeria’s progress for quite some time now.
She noted that for the nation to move forward, the culture of extreme monetisation of the political processes by some political actors must stop.
On the idea behind the establishment of the institution, Ayida-Otobo said that with the growing need around Africa for quality leadership particularly in Nigeria, the SPPG was determined to bridge the gaps experienced in these areas.
She said the school is an unconventional school of the research-anchored #FixPolitics initiative that is designed to transform the quality of political and public leadership in Nigeria and the rest of Africa.
According to her, SPPG has a continental focus and commenced in Nigeria in 2020 with expansion plans into Senegal in 2023, as the first step before six other countries.
“As a continent, we are having leadership gap in three areas which is character, competence, and capacity. If you’ve worked for a government official before, and you have the misfortune of working for a commissioner or a minister that is not very effective, that can be a very painful experience because for various reasons, they’re not able to do it. So that gap of competence is a real gap. And then the third pillar of democracy is the constitutional and electoral framework which we are also trying to improve upon,” she added.
and then