Certain eminent Nigerians across political divides on Tuesday converged on Abuja to conduct the inaugural meeting of a coalition, the Rescue Nigeria Project, with the mission to build a new direction for the country.

Present at the International Conference Centre, venue of the event, were former national secretary of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, Ambassador Usman Bugaje; former Minister of Education, Professor Tunde Adeniran; former Kwara State governor, Abdul Fatah Ahmed and Professor Pat Utomi.

Expected but absent at the event were former Deputy Governor of Kogi State, Yomi Awoniyi and former Cross Rivers State governor, Donald Duke.

In his welcome address, Ambassador Bugaje identified poor leadership recruitment process as the heart of the problems confronting the country.

He said the RNP was determined to push for new standards with competence, discipline and character to make a difference.

He said: “The Rescue Nigeria Project is founded on the premise that the problems of this country, many and varied as they are, all emanate from poor leadership. In other words when you reduce the problems of this country to what they are, ultimately, it all comes to leadership. We have been unable to exit the leadership conundrum precisely because the leadership recruitment mechanism in our political parties is so flawed that, except for accidents, they are incapable of producing competent leaders with the requisite knowledge, discipline and commitment to make a difference. We are living with, or better still, groaning under the consequences of this folly.

“What this means is that any attempt to rescue this country from its troubles must first rescue it from the current leadership recruitment mechanism that seems to leverage on money and connection or ethnic sentiments and no premium on knowledge or competence. The challenge is how to introduce a set of criteria or better still re-calibrate the recruitment mechanism in our political parties to prioritize knowledge, competence and character. The deepening crises in the political parties are all the more reasons why this re-calibration is necessary.

“Our core values, rightly start with ethical leadership which speaks to the character of leaders, the key features of competence, capacity and the courage to do the right thing, motivated by patriotism, selflessness and service, conscious of inclusiveness, fairness, equity, mutual respect and accommodation. We intend to renew the spirit of leadership and create new standards to speak to the role this great country is expected to play in the great continent of Africa.”

Buhari administration rudderless ― Bugaje

On raging controversy for zoning of elective offices, particularly the presidency, Bugaje said priority should be given to competence.

“We must seek to change the conversation about leadership. The first thing we should want to know about our president is not which part of the country he or she comes from, rather how competent is he or she? What is the content of his policy document? What is his team made up of? Etc. We also seek to ensure a seismic shift from the politics of big men to the politics of big ideas. The empty politics of big men have not taken us anywhere but down the drain.

“We simply can’t continue this way. We also have to prioritize knowledge, because as we all know, in the 21st century, knowledge is the greatest capital. That is the only thing that gives countries a competitive edge. Governance must be driven by ideas, it has to be creative and must create solutions, especially job creation, economic growth and prosperity. It must appreciate the future, deploy technology, develop the human capital, the most precious component of every development plan, protect the environment, ensure food security as well as human dignity.”

Our leadership recruitment drive ineffective ― Former Kwara governor

In his contribution, former Kwara State governor, AbdulFatah Ahmed said the performance of the present administration in the last six years fell short of expectations of most Nigerians.

“In 2015, Nigerians embraced change. Today, that change appears to be what we didn’t expect. There is insecurity. There is widespread poverty and incompetence in government. Today, we have a high level of nepotism and a lack of exclusiveness. These have given rise to agitations by different ethnic groups.

“It is based on this that we decided to set up this Rescue Nigeria Project. We want to salvage this country and see how we can fix the mess. We want to set a template and key criteria leaders must have before they can attain any political position.”

Professor Adeniran alerted the nation about what he described as the growing loss of direction and hopelessness amongst Nigerian youths.

“We know where we were coming from. For our youths, it is difficult for them to see hope. We haven’t done enough to do the needful that there is injustice, lack of unity, commitment and there is no focus. If you look around now, what is worrisome is that people don’t seem to care that things are wrong. And the youths are watching. This is a tragedy and we must rise up.

“We have enough human resources and natural resources. We must identify the people that are capable of doing this. This forum is for cross-fertilization of ideas.” (Nigerian Tribune)

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