Unless Nigerians take the bull by the horns and join political parties as members, they would have no other choice than having bad leadership, which has become the country’s Wall of Jericho, foisted on them.
Speakers and panelists at the 114 Annual Founders’ Day lecture of Kings College Old Boys Association, KCOBA, in Lagos yesterday, who held the view, also described party membership card, PMC, as a more potent democratic weapon than the Permanent Voter Card, PVC.
According to them, it is through PMC that candidates for elections are chosen and from which voters make their choices.
The speakers and panelists, who spoke on “Dismantling the barriers: Creating a pathway for the emergence of effective leaders in Nigeria’’, include Mr Olumide Akpata, the Chairman, 2023 Kingsweek Planning Committee, who is also the immediate past President of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, the guest speaker and Mr Tonye Cole, the All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship candidate in Rivers State in the last general elections.
Others were Mr Funso Doherty, the ADC governorship candidate in Lagos State in 2023, Mr Etigwa Uwa, SAN, the APGA governorship candidate in Abia State this year and Babajide Obanikoro, Special Adviser to the President on Education and the moderator, Dr Tokunbo Shitta-Bey, the CEO of Duchess International Hospital, Lagos.
The speakers noted that poor leadership had become a Wall of Jericho that must be pulled down for the nation to make any significant progress.
The keynote speaker, Senator Abaribe, said the barriers were not insurmountable, but that collective efforts of all citizens would do the magic.
He said: “During the cold war era, the Berlin Wall was built and it divided the city into two. Many saw it as something that would be in perpetuity.