Ahead of next year’s general election, the Archbishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Mathew Kukah, has offered an insight into the kind of leaders, particularly the person that should be elected by Nigerians as its next President.
He pointed out that it was really important for Nigerians to move away from voting based on ethnic, religious, or political sentiments and rather focus on voting for someone who is capable of tackling the perennial challenges facing the country.
Kukah, who gave the insight while speaking on a TV interview on Friday which was monitored by Africa Daily News, New York, maintained that though the frontline candidates are individually qualified to lead the country, it was important for Nigerians to see through them and choose wisely.
The cleric asserted that the era of rhetorics must be put behind Nigerians and that the electorates must sieve and interrogate the presidential candidates on their ideology, plans and governance style before making their choice.
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His words; ‘The people must interrogate their (presidential candidates) ability and capacity to govern by sheer brain and not bribe. The point is that even the whole idea of leadership is often exaggerated because we are confusing political officeholders with leaders.
“It is only in Nigeria that there is so much focus on the centre. Society can only grow when we extend the frontiers of knowledge and opportunities.
‘Critical to all of these, we are looking for a president that has the understanding of the complexity of what is wrong with Nigeria. It is not just about people just aspiring without an understanding of the issues.
‘My argument is that anybody who aspires to rule Nigeria and we have the opportunity to, we (Nigerians) must redesign the template of confrontation and you (presidential candidate) must be able to confront Nigerians and answer their questions.
‘I am not and won’t be surprised if the candidates are moving up and down and convincing us by taking minimalist positions and telling us these and that are what they are going to do.
‘I won’t also be surprised if the next president of Nigeria tells us he would tackle insecurity, increase power generation, and what have you.
‘The critical question is that aspiring leaders must be subjected to a litmus test by the people. The people must ask questions like since you (presidential candidate) said you want to deal with insecurity, can we get a sense of how you want to do it and achieve success? Can you show us from your background how you will be able to do this?
‘Fortunately for us, the frontline candidates have a track record and those track records must be what we must use to project the nature of the choice we have to make,” the cleric who recently celebrated his 70th birthday said.
He said it was important for the political actors, particularly the presidential candidates to listen to the young people, understand their frustrations, and align their agenda toward assuaging their grievances.
