According to Daily Post, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, the former minister of transport, stated that the political class currently exploits ethnicity to win elections for national offices.
The nation, according to the former governor of Rivers State, is still in need of genuine national leaders.
He stated this on Thursday in Lagos as the guest speaker at this year’s The Niche Annual Lecture, with the theme, “Why We Stride and Slip: Leadership, Nationalism, and the Nigerian Condition.”
Amaechi, however, singled out former President Olusegun Obasanjo as the only Nigerian leader near that point of nationalism, insisting that the rest were ethnic leaders.
The 2023 presidential aspirant on the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) platform, said in part:
“Most times, we elect those who openly show that they are ethnic leaders and they are there for their ethnic group.
“Our political elites constantly run to their ethnic bases to provoke ethnic debate each time they fail to win advantages in their struggle for power and privilege at the national level.
“The only person near that point of nationalism, with all due respect, is ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo. The rest are ethnic leaders.”
The former Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly noted that “truly remarkable national leadership is the ability of a leader to galvanize the totality of a nation around the common national banner with a vision and a sense of mission.”
