By M A C Odu
I do not think Nigerians should nominate someone for a sensitive position like President of Nigeria without setting out credentials and criteria that informed our choice. The criteria should make primaries easier since those who step forward eventually for the position should have met a substantial proportion of the criteria prior to political party nomination. These credentials may be considered for inclusion in the Nigeria Constitution.
I do not think that anyone under sixty should vie for that No. 1 position in Nigeria without established inside-out knowledge of Nigeria, without being ICT savvy, without: impeccable credentials in public trust, patriotism, nationalism, oratory, high negotiating skills, clean public service records where applicable, perspicacity in vision for the nation and stable family character. He must in addition be a symbol of Nigeria in attitude and carriage in private and public life. He should not have been faulted or doubted as a clean leader through his public and private life. He must be a professional and not a politician, for politics is not a profession. In fact politics is an endeavour of discovering true leaders and selling such leaders to the electorate for love of nation or state or electorate and what is right and proper; and not for benefiting from such endeavour with pecks of power unless of course such desire is backed up with a discipline or profession. A politician should not be rewarded with leadership position for which he does not have appropriate qualification to fill. By a professional, I mean someone who had acquired and discipline and had lived with it for at least twenty years and established goodwill that should attract for him patronage for high fidelity position in power. Leadership should be sufficiently backed up with experience of professional life and distinctly satisfactory human conduct garnishing such a life. A professional in short must live with impeccable integrity in thought, word and deed.
Nigeria has many people who would easily fit into a mould constructed with these criteria. A good politician should go and find such people and market them to true leaders. But leadership is a different ball game. It is a game for real people with positive credentials only. It is a job for consistent travelers on development journeys in history and in forward perspective which can be deduced for road travelled. An aspirant to power should evoke reverence for his unblemished visibility on the pedestals of right courses. Leadership is that important. It is not a game for triflers and miscreants. It is not a game of experimenters. It is too serious to be left with neophytes in leadership who subvert society and turn around to seek to lead it.
His circle of friends must be varied and universal. He must have truth and justice as his bastion. He must respect professionalism and use them at all times for sharpening his choice of paradigms for development before embarking upon them. He must neither be prodigal in expenditure nor expensive in taste for symbolic relevance. He must be discreet and humble even in prosperity. He must dine with nobles and retain the common touch.
He must not be too old to drift into somnolence in prolonged discourse nor too young to be limited in experience profiles required dearly for discussion with leaders of other nations. He must be starkly aware that Nigeria Project comes first in his wakefulness and his sleep. He must discipline himself to the reality of bearing the future of the populace on his shoulders no matter how narrow it physically is. He must be a dreamer, visionary and pragmatist. He must be humble to listen to the lowly and give their needs attention. His yardstick for policy formulation must be the poorest in the community under his umbrage. His ultimate goal is the betterment of the majority at the bottom of the social pyramid.
It should be fairly easy for political parties or individuals who favour independent candidacy to choose from among their ranks people who meet a significant proportion of these criteria before throwing aspirants up for presidential nomination and election.
