By Barr Vitalis Unachukwu
ARTICLE TWO
Woeful Failures Of Leadership And General Insecurity In Nigeria
There’s no question that the general insecurity of lives and property in our nation is evidence of woeful failures of leadership at all levels of the present administration, after unfortunately shirking responsibility in the primary function of government on the protection of lives and property.
Sadly, Nigerians throughout the country live in continuous fear of harm with no hope of stopping their phobia of moving about freely without molestation, intimidation and having their lives threatened. Unfortunate Nigerians lost their lives in inexplicable circumstances which their governments failed to address , account and apologize.
Government’s failure in protecting Nigerians is mother of all failures which is inexcusable as we continue to seek answers as to how we got where we are today and yearning for change of leadership.
The failures of leadership are responsible for a long list of failures underlying our political, economic and democratic problems plaguing and tormenting our nation till date.
What is responsible for the leadership failures that suddenly saw everyone’s life threatened today with impunity ?
We have the Nigeria Police Force Constitutionally empowered to handle law enforcement if properly equipped and not the Armed Forces, legally charged to fight wars and defend our territorial integrity and not to be first responders on domestic issues and violence affecting the citizens.
Why did we get things wrong and messed up ?
Purely, lack of leadership and obvious lacuna in our democratic norms and institutions.
Why was our national borders not adequately fortified to protect us from the influx of criminals and terrorists from other countries and measures have not been taken to ensure we know the identities of those who should not have been in our country ?
Other nations guard their borders jealously, while we slumber away and allowed miscreants, terrorists and people with criminal propensities and antecedents to infiltrate and roam about in our nation to hunt , harm and kill us and our families without Government raising a voice of protection, doing something to protect us and showing no sympathy to the bereaved.
Such is part of the state of our nation that today demands an inevitable change of leadership at the highest level of government.
Why do we lack the political will and courage to do what’s right at all levels of government ?
Why Senator Anyim Pius Anyim Fits IN The Analytical Perspectives
Nigerians must shine their eyes this time around in the choice and election of their next President for the purpose of reversing today’s misfortunes and laying a solid leadership foundation for their children and children’s children .
Those who failed in the past to obey the promptings of their consciences and got us to where we are, must show honest contrition and true compunction of heart in saying mea culpa, while righting their wrongs this time around , or they would perpetuate our collective hardships beyond the capacity of our endurance.
Nigerians should watch out :
The next President must be someone with proven, verifiable track records of service and must be one without indictment on corruption or any other serious crime in Nigeria or abroad.
He must be one with admirable good age of reason and capable of making wise decisions, with capacity to know when he’s misled and make appropriate leadership adjustments for the greater good of the country.
He must not be a very old man of bodily and mental weakness . He should be a person of sound mind in a sound body .
He must be one with clean bill of health free from terminal illness at the time of running for office , who would not be seen to frequently abdicate the functions of his office or found wanting in the performance of his job , because of frequent overseas hospitalization and treatment at the expense of tax payers money and resources of our nation.
He must satisfy all the constitutional requirements for running office , without mumbo jumbo cover up to lie to Nigerians on his current state of health and background requisitions.
He must someone with good functional education, at least a College Certificate or University
Degree , capable of appreciating the import , purport and implications of the challenges of his office and must be ready to defend his academic records when called up than playing the ostrich.
He must be one with a good conscience and ascertainable principles and a person of good character with the heart and ingenuity of making sound decisions.
He must someone who respects and applies the rule of law in all government actions and in his Presidential deportment without flinching. He must respect the citizens basic, constitutional rights and safeguards, rights of women and children and must not have been indicted of abuses to women and children.
He must be a person of good character with a marketable, charismatic personality before Nigerians and citizens of other nations, and should not be at large in International Bilateral and Multilateral Summits where Nigeria’s interests are at stake.
He must be one Nigerians could vouch for and hold accountable.
He must one who must be ready to defend us and our constitution upon taking the oath of office and should be able to work assiduously without weakness to defend Nigerians from terrorists and enemies to our nation.
He must be ready to be above board , to lead with integrity and honor without blemish .
He must be legally married as well as an exemplary and committed family man , who understands the challenges of family life and respect the values of the family as microcosm of the nation he intends to lead.
The person worthy to be the next President must be submissive to participation in National Debates , Press Conferences , Town Hall Meetings etc and show readiness to face voters before elections.
He must be fair in playing politics without bitterness and rancor. He should be able to see the nation as his constituency and Nigerians as his constituents without discrimination.
The next President must justifiably have obvious presidential qualities recognizable by Nigerians on simple vetting and closer look , with presidential materials and credentials, marketable at home and abroad , and should be someone Nigerians could count on in all circumstances.
In other words, he should be presidential in words and deeds and ready to identify with Nigerians in difficult and good times.
There’s no doubt by unbiased reckoning, the man who fits into the above Presidential leadership perspectives is currently Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, GCON, former Senate President and Leader of the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), under Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan Administrations respectively.
As a lawyer, imbued with extensive legal knowledge, wealth of legislative, administrative and political leadership experience and ingenuity of understanding the rudiments of democracy in our land , there’s no gain saying his transparency, credibility and suitability for the Presidency of Nigeria and a worthy Son of Igboland from the South East Geopolitical Zone, armed with the requisite leadership experience and presidential qualities to lead our country after Buhari’s Presidency , to reverse the pernicious trend of our nation’s political quagmire and economic intransigence.
Nigerians should not allow themselves to be deceived by politics of opportunism , money bags and character assassination, by those who do not come close in comparison with this political colossus from SouthEastern Nigeria, which is they only geopolitical zone yet to produce a President, since after the Civil War, and there is no way the Igbos will be fully integrated into the Nigeria , unless they are allowed the fair consideration of having the turn to produce the next President.
The Presidential candidacy of Anyim speaks eloquently to the foregoing qualities of our next President, which Nigerians should sensitize themselves with and focus on backing the right man for the Presidential job , or we would for decades and centuries not recover from our blatant political mistakes of obeying our consciences and speaking truth to Power.
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May God grant us the wisdom and courage to stand and defend the truth of our consciences in doing what’s right for the greater good and the greater glory of God Almighty, who created us .
Barr Vitalis Unachukwu writes from the United States 🇺🇸
