2023 ELECTIONS: Show Valid Evidence of Past, Present Community Building Efforts -Olatunji Charges Political Aspirants

Our dream for a better society is limitless.  As human beings, we all desire good things of life as obtained in developed nations around the world. Over times, we have come to realize that our desires and aspirations for a flourishing society confer greater responsibility on us as a people.

Nigeria as a nation with over 200m population can’t justify her backwardness due to dearth of visionary and selfless leadership. We have come to realize that great nations around the world that we talk about today from Europe to Asia to America were built by visionary leaders.

Although digging deep into our political history which revolves around regional political culture, permit me to say, we haven’t fully integrated as a nation more than sixty years after our independence because ethnicity has almost ruined our social integration platforms, created over the years to strengthen us as one people with strong and indivisible aspirations. There is nothing different from how advanced nations were built around the world till today.

However, there is a concept in politics that says every politics is local across the globe and same philosophy is what others are deploying to build their nations. The 2023 elections provide us with opportunity to change our strategy on how our leaders emerge from the communities to the state and national level.

In retrospect, over the last two decades of our democratic experiences, the process of how various leaders emerged,  be at the local level, state or national,  has largely been through proxy.  This has continued to deny the society the much desired dividends of democracy the citizens have long been yearning for. There is this sociological perspective of man that every society is responsible for the kind of leadership it throws up.

In my view, this perspective may be right on one hand and  it may be wrong on the other hand.  What do we say in a society where poverty level is unimaginable through deliberate policy of the ruling class? By implication, the down-trodden people (citizens) are vulnerable to all manners of manipulations during the period of elections as all manners of leaders emerge.

How did those prosperous nations we talk about today get to their present status? Visionary leaders built America, visionary leaders built Europe, visionary  leaders built Asia and so on. Where are the visionary leaders that will build Nigeria or are we saying with over 200m population, we don’t have visionary leaders in Nigeria? Hummmmm! Visionary and patriotic leaders abound across the social landscape of this country, called Nigeria.

. In my view, comparing the process of throwing up leaders in advanced democracies, we are very far away from smelling the much awaited dividends of democracy because of how we throw up our leaders in our society. In advanced democracies, leaders emerge through selfless community services before ever thinking of any political aspirations.  Conversely, in our country, leaders emerge through proxy and most times, not obligated to render any community efforts.  Every four years of our political circle is full of lamentations upon lamentations because visionary leaders have been denied their emergence due to series of manipulations in our political process.

My final take therefore is to remind the electorates about the 2023 general elections. These elections will no doubt reposition this country on the path of peace and prosperity if we put the right people in the office from the grassroots.  Allow the electorates to participate in electing their leaders and only those with community service efforts should be considered.

The act of nation building is a collective efforts and building a nation starts from the community level  . Those who built Europe, America, Asia and other advanced economies started with community efforts.

.Otunba Sola Olatunji, a business and political leader writes from Lagos