The Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), has said that the cause of the country’s underdevelopment is as a result of persistent recruitment of bad leaders to manage the affairs of the country.
IPAC also identified the absence of committed and patriotic leadership as one of the major challenges to development in the country.
The IPAC National Chairman, Engr. Yabagi Sani, stated this on Tuesday when a 10-man ECOWAS delegation on a pre-election fact-finding mission visited his office in Abuja.
Sani said unless the challenges of the recruitment process of the leadership of the country are addressed, the pursuit for collective prosperity and progress in the country would not materialise.
“Almost 40% of all global resources are deposited in Africa and why we are not able to take advantage of it because elections are not representative of what people really want.
“And if you cannot recruit the right leadership in the position of governance, then problems continue to be compounded because those you have they’re not there by the wish of the people.
“So, your visit is timely because some of the things that are happening are not good for our peace of mind, especially the issues of violence and the use of money in the electoral process. If these kinds of visits are not taking place, perhaps such things will keep happening with greater impunity,” he said.
The IPAC Chairman, however, commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the measures so far put in place, particularly digital technology, to sanitise the country’s electoral processes.
“We’re happy that INEC has done quite a lot in terms of bringing to bear all that is required to ensure that we have credible, peaceful, reliable and all-inclusive elections by way of stabilizing the process,” Sani said.
Earlier in his address, the leader of the ECOWAS delegation and former president of the Ghana Electoral Commission, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, explained that the objective of the visit was to conduct an assessment of the status of preparations for the conduct of the polls in implementing the objectives of the mission.
He urged political parties in the country to embrace dialogue, noting that Nigeria’s 2023 elections should not be seen as a deadly battle.
“We’ll really like to urge the political parties to stop talking at each other and being abusive, but start talking to each other. You’re not having a battle,” he advised.
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