By John Egbokhan
From the mouth of one of Nigeria's frontline politicians, Peter Obi, comes to the declaration that he is not desperate to become the president of Africa's most populous black nation on earth.
The former governor of Anambra, who spoke at the fourth convocation ceremony of Nexford University, the US-based online Ivory tower, decried the state of leadership in Nigeria, describing it as “an imposition on the people”.
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general election called on the graduating students to embrace the spirit of servitude so as to lead effectively and “ignite the needed change”.
Obi further said that he is “desperate to see the country work”.
“All of these that we are saying is for you to use it and ignite that change and support. It is not for you to start saying ‘I want to be in charge. I want to do this. I want to do that’,” said Obi.
“When people say I am desperate I say ‘No’. I am not desperate to be Nigeria’s president’. I am desperate to see Nigeria work because it can work.”
He stated that Nigerian youths must help to reignite the “right leadership that the country requires for development”.
“James Robinson, one of the Nobel laureates in economics, last year said it openly that Nigeria is a country that knows what to do to prosper and refuses to do it,” Obi added.
“How can you allow drivers and people who are at their destinations to drive you? You will lose. They have passed their destinations. They have passed their time.
“That is what you should help to reignite. Use what you have henceforth to help us change the society. Do not go and be part of this. You are a victim of Nigeria. Because our age and the one before refused to do what is right and we are suffering for it.”
