By; RAYMOND TEDUNJAYE, Lagos.
The path to election and global peace took the centre stage at a media summit in Lagos at the weekend, with an appeal to Nigerians to be agents of peace, to engender free and fair elections in 2023.
Speakers at the summit urged political leaders to see their ambition as not worth spilling the blood of any body in order to win an election.
The speakers, who are mainly media gurus, canvassed the position at the 4th Anniversary Summit / Distinguished Global Citizens Achievers Award, themed “: Election and Global Peace; A Leadership Challenge”, held at Airport Hotel on Saturday.
In his paper presentation, the guest lecturer Ambassador Onwordi Onichabor, President African Integrity posited that it is time for Nigerians to resist leaders with entitlement mentality and emulate the edifying conduct of former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan maxim of ” my ambition is not worth spilling the blood of any Nigerian”.
According to him, until and unless Nigerian leaders embrace this maxim and also give every section of the country a chance to also provide leadership at the centre, the solution to end global conflicts may continue to elude the country.
His words, ” Since the rich are also crying, it behooves our political leadership to self – introspect and begin to alter the formula they created to bring about our unhappy situation. It is time to rise up to resist leaders with entitlement mentality and emulate the edifying conduct of former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan who said ” ambition is not worth spilling the blood of any Nigerian”. Until and unless we have political characters like him in the stage, and until Nigeria decide to give every section of the country a chance to also provide leadership at the centre, the solution we seek to end global conflicts may continue to elude us”.
Onichabor posited that less than one percent of Nigeria political players have the required competence, adroitness and genuine desire to serve and raise the bar of leadership performance across all induces of developments.
He maintained that Nigeria is a political stage with strange bell fellows, whose desire is not to offer sincere, progressive and development based leadership, but are attracted solely by the vain and selfish desire to grab power and use the authority and influence it provides to enrich themselves.
” To worsen Nigeria situation, there exists a convoluted conspiracy between the political elites and the economic elites, whose main interests is to continue to share the spoils of electoral war, better themselves, fami and cronies at the detriment of the society and the masses, amid a gaping helplessness fueled by an incomprehensible high level docility and indifference
” This societal permissiveness remains another major challenge which our political leadership exploits and even dare deploy to harass and manipulate the pauperized, abused and dehumanized populace into silence”, the renowned media expert submitted.
In her speech earlier, the Editor-in – Chief of Global Searchlight magazine, organiser of the event, Deaconess Lola Adesokan called on all Nigerians to be agents of peace to engender a free and fair elections in 2023.
She posited that this is the only recipe through which the benefits of democracy can be reaped after the 2023 general elections.
