ABIODUN NEJO, Ado-Ekiti
Social Democratic Party (SDP) Presidential Aspirant for the 2019 elections, Professor Iyorwuese Hagher, has advocated emergence of a great leader capable of instigating the desired revolutionary change to ensure national greatness.
Hagher, a don and former Nigerian High Commissioner to Canada, who lamented that proliferation of bad leadership had been the bane of the country, said the 2019 election should be an opportunity for Nigeria to provide “a different type of leadership which can foresee a future of greatness and then assiduously work towards rebuilding Nigeria from bottoms up”.
The former minister, who spoke on Tuesday in a lecture at Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti (ABUAD) entitled: ‘Nigeria’s Stunted Metamorphorsis to Greatness: The Insecurity Factor” during the 8th Aare Afe Babalola Annual Lecture” organized by the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) Ado Ekiti Branch, said “lack of vision by Nigerian leaders have stunted the Nigerian metamorphosis to greatness”.
He said: “The key to national greatness is the emergence of a great leader who is able to garner the aspirations, goals and needs of the people and with passion bond and bind with them through a process that leads to revolutionary change. All great leaders create monumental changes. They instigate revolutions”.
The former ABUAD pro-chancellor, who said he was eyeing Nigeria’s Presidency to better the lot of the oppressed masses, said: “Politics is, to me, a struggle for liberation of all Nigerian groups who are held as captives and struggle in vain to live the type of lives they dreamed and wished for.
“I seek a peaceful revolution of hope for the poor and the downtrodden, the marginalized, the bystanders and those who have presence but no voice to express their presence.
“This revolution will restructure the country and usher in a new political culture and new politics, where we collectively harness the best ideas from the rest of the world and from our traditions and cultures create a Nigeria where the elite and citizens live with the same rights and privileges and engage in patriotic struggles every day to make Nigeria better.
“I seek to be president on behalf of those whose lives have been shattered, those who live in the midst of poverty, squalor and extreme violence; as well as those who have empty pockets because they have been denied the right to education, work, electricity, health, food security, clean water and even denied the right to live!
“I seek for all Nigerians a life of dignity and freedom. I stand as counter-weight to the other politicians who have joined the oppressor class and are now engaged in re-colonizing the citizens of Nigeria through anti-people policies and toxic leadership,” the former minister stated.
According to him, a great leader is able to provide qualitative life for his/her followership/country, adding: “Critics of bad leadership in Nigeria have repeatedly shown how East Asian countries namely China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, which were in the same socio-economic league with Nigeria have through good leaders achieved greatness”.
The Presidential hopeful, who said Nigerians were looking forward to a bleak and uncertain future as the 2019 elections drew near, said: “The 2019 presidential election is set against the backdrop: as the authorization of greater insecurity by voting President Muhammadu Buhari for four more years of more of the same collective insecurity, corruption and escalation of genocide.
“As alternative, the nation must urgently seek and find other strident strong voices of hope on the Nigerian political horizon which are strong, but not visible in the Nigerian political market square, dominated by money bag costumed masquerades, performing macabre acrobatic stunts with noise, fury and flurry”.
Higher who identified threats to national greatness as insecurity, corruption, poverty, globalization, poor leadership and weak institutions, canvassed implementation of people-driven restructuring of Nigeria, generation of public policy to protect those most affected by violence and a new crop of businessmen and entrepreneurs who are innovative, versatile and Nigeria-centric, among others as ways out.