Labour Party’s (LP) Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi stated that the upcoming 2023 elections should not be about connections or religion, but rather about competence and capacity.

Obi said this on Monday at the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) conference in Lagos State.

He also said Nigeria is in a mess due to the effects of leadership failure over the years.

“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.

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“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 ₦1,630,000,000, 000 but expenditure is ₦4,720,000,000,000. If you minus this, we have a deficit of ₦3,100,000,000,000.

“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.

2023 election

“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.”

Nigeria lacks heroes

The Herald had reported that Chimamanda Adichie said the nation does not have “heroes” who will inspire its younger generation.

Adiche said this on Monday in her keynote address at the Annual General Meeting of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Lagos State.

“We are starved of heroes. Our young people do not find people to look up to anymore,” the award-winning writer said during the event.

Adichie said that Nigerians should be open to self-criticism, this will engender good leadership in the nation.

“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.

“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 a 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” Chimamanda Adichie said.