Senator Shekarau urges Nigerians to seek quality leadership
Jack Acheme, Tukur Arab & Hauwa Mustapha, Kano
The incumbent senator representing Kano-Central Senatorial Zone, Sen. Ibrahim Shekarau, has urged Nigerians to lay more emphasis on seeking quality leadership that can bring meaningful development across the nation than sectionalism.
The former governor of Kano State gave the advice during an interactive session with the media in the ancient city of Kano.
He said electing credible and quality leaders from councillors to the presidency is the only way development can be brought to the people.
“The emphasis should be on who you are and not what or where you are from. If you want development in your local government elect credible persons as your councillors and hold them accountable because leadership starts from so many levels.
“Everybody should become politically conscious, for quality leaders to be elected right from councillors up to the presidency to engender development,” advised the former Minister of Education.”Sen. Shekarau said.
He regretted that currently the 82 million registered voters in Nigeria have not been able to elect quality leaders to occupy the 11,000 elective posts in the country to manage affairs of the nation and it’s over 200 million estimated population.
“Most of the current leaders are not coordinated in their strategies and are acting independently without consultative structures giving rise to disconnected development in Nigerian society.” The Senator said.
While citing the example of the Sarduana of Sokoto who, as an individual, used his elaborate structures to engender development in the north, Shekarau lamented that there are more Sarduanas in the north today and there isn’t much development.
“Because no one knows what each other is doing. Jigawa does not know what Bauchi is doing and they too do not know what Kano is doing and so on.” Shekarau said.
On the 2023 presidential election, he said the All Progressive Congress, (APC) do not have zoning in its constitution but there should be politics of common sense for fairness and justice to all in the nation’s diverse society
“I’m not talking of Zoning but balancing the equation that make up Nigeria. There is no state in Nigeria that does not have up to 100 qualified people to be head of state.”
“It will not be fair for one to come out as a presidential aspirant and pick his Vice President from your own area too. Let there be a balance in the diversity of Nigeria.” Shekarau said.
He said the country’s new electoral law will be out soon and it is expected to remove all the bottlenecks currently experienced.
“Between now and April ending we should have that robust law in place. It will take care of the bottlenecks in the electoral system in the country because I’m part of that committee,” he added.
Zainab Sa’id