Jega, Ahmed, Duke, Utomi lead move to upstage APC govt

ABUJA – Ahead of the 2023 gen­eral elections, a third force, Rescue Nigeria Project (RNP), has emerged to deliver Nigeria from the present administra­tion headed by the All Progres­sives Congress (APC).

Leading the rescue project are former governor of Kwara State, Ahmed Abdulfatai, Prof. Pat Utomi, Prof. Tunde Adeniran; former governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke; Senator Lee Maeba, Usman Bugaje, Prof. Attahiru Jega, Amb. Nkoyo Toyo, Yomi Awoniyi, Dr. Rose Idi Danladi, Dr. Sadiq Gombe, and others.

In his keynote address, Ab­dulfatai lamented the state of the nation, noting that the high level of nepotism and lack of exclusiveness have given rise to agitations by different ethnic groups.

He said that in 2015, Nigeri­ans embraced change, adding that today that change appears to be what the country didn’t expect, as insecurity has taken over the nation.

“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,” he said.

He further said: “Despite the great opportunities of the past, Nigeria has failed to live up to the dreams of its founding fathers and the hopes of succes­sive generations of its citizens.

“Perhaps, at no other time have these failings become more apparent than in the past decade or so.

“2015, Nigerians overwhelm­ingly embraced the promise of change. These hopes have not only been dashed, but they have arguably turned out to be the worst political mistake that has ever been made in this country. Nigeria today appears set to fulfill all the prophesies of doom.”

Lamenting the intractable insecurity in the country, the former governor also lamented the collapse of the economy de­spite the claim of government to the rise of GDP.

Abdulfatai said: “Unprece­dented nepotism and political exclusion have left the country more divided than ever as evi­dence in the various separatist agitations that are threatening the corporate existence of the country itself.”

Also speaking, Adeniran noted that there is disaster at hand, hence the move to rescue the nation.

He said: “You only rescue when there is disaster and when you fail to rescue during disaster it is more dangerous.

“We have a disaster in our hand and we need to rescue the country. We need to look back and see how we got here. We know where Nigeria was before now. We know the task is not going to be easy, but we have to determine how to rescue the nation.”

In his opening remarks, the National Coordinator of RNP, Bugaje, explained that 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.

Berating the leadership of the country, Bugaje said, “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 prioritise knowledge, competence and character. The deepening cri­sis in the political parties is all the more reason why this re-calibration is necessary.”

Calling on stakeholders to rise to salvage and secure the nation and return it to the path of progress, Bugaje said, “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 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 has not taken us any­where but down the drain. We simply can’t continue this way.”

The vision of the RNP is “to reconcile and re-unite our country, win and deploy polit­ical power for the purpose of nation building and national development, achieving pros­perity for all, and the protec­tion of life and dignity of every Nigerian citizen.”