Peter Obi, Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, has expressed optimism that the 2023 general election will be centred on the capacity of candidates not their connections, tribe or religion.
He said this while speaking at the ongoing 2022 Annual General Meeting of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Lagos.
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The conference held with the theme ‘Bold Transitions’, commenced on Monday and will end on Friday, August 26.
“Remember, the election we are going to have next year will not be about tribe, not religion, not connection, not entitlement, but about character, competence, capacity, and commitment to deliver,” Obi said.
In her remarks, an award-winning author, Chimamanda Adichie, said the country is starved of heroes to inspire its citizens, particularly the young people.
She appealed to Nigerians to embrace self-criticism to foster transparency and good governance in the country.
“We are starved of heroes. Our young people do not find people to look up to anymore. As long as we refuse to untangle the knot of injustice, peace cannot thrive. If we don’t talk about it, we fail to hold leaders accountable and we turn what should be transparent systems into ugly opaque cults.
“My experience made me think there’s something dead in us, in our society; a death of self-awareness and ability for self-criticism.
“There’s need for resurrection. We cannot avoid self-criticism but criticise the government. We cannot hide our own institutional failure while demanding transparency from the government,” she said.
