Attahiru Jega Lists Qualities Nigeria’s Next President Must Possess

Former National Chairman of Independent Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, has faulted the recruitment process for political leaders in the country.

Jega, who lectures at the Department of Political Science, Bayero University, Kano said Nigeria’s problems had remained unsolved because of lack of competent and visionary elected and appointed leaders.

He said character, competence and capacity should be factors that Nigerians should put into consideration before voting for anyone into leadership position

He said this in his opening remarks at the pre- Ramadan lecture organised by the University of Lagos Muslim Alumni Association. A note on the address was made available to our correspondent on Monday.

He said as sensitive and as important as leadership positions are to the peace and development of any society, it is unfortunate that there is not qualification requirement for anybody to get into such position.

Jega said, “We must develop an overwhelming consensus that political leadership cannot remain the only job for which no qualification appears necessary except to have a lot of money, usually, stolen
money.

” It is clear that for as long as the current pattern of leadership recruitment continues, our troubles will continue.

“It is for this reason that we must find a way to bring relevant criteria to bear on the selection of leadership. We have got to find a way of making character, competence and capacity to
determine who leads .

“To my mind, this should be made the main item on the agenda of all patriotic citizens and organized civil society and community – based groups for active participation in the political and electoral processes
of our country leading to the 2023 general elections.

“If, or when, we have good people in leadership positions, in governance, the resolution of many of our national challenges would become much easier, from restructuring, to reposition the economy and addressing the needs and aspirations of Nigerian citizens.”

Jega stressed that good people should be concerned about the dominance of the bad ones in the political space and come out to salvage the situation before they run the country totally aground.