The presidential candidates discussed the economy, insecurity, and the ongoing university lecturers’ strike, among other things, in response to calls for them to run issue-based campaigns before the 2023 elections.

The presidential candidates of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and Labour Party, LP, Mr. Peter Obi, yesterday articulated what they would do, if elected.

The trio spoke as guest speakers at the Nigerian Bar Association Annual General Conference, NBA-AGC held in Lagos, which also had in attendance the presidential candidates of African Democratic Party, Mr Dumebi Kachikwu, Social Democratic Party, Adewole Adebayo and All Progressives Grand Alliance, Peter Umeadi.

Although Tinubu was represented by his running mate, Kashim Shettima, Atiku Abubakar, Obi, and the other presidential candidates were physically present.

I’ll devolve more powers to states — Atiku

Speaking at the conference, Atiku said he would hand over Federal Government-owned universities to state governments.

Atiku, who stated this as a panelist at the opening ceremony of the conference, with the theme ‘’Bold Transitions’’, said the government doesn’t have infinite resources to continue to shoulder the cost of university education in the country, especially against the backdrop of the ongoing strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, which had been on for over six months.

“The only way is to make sure that you make a conducive environment available to both foreign and local investors to participate in our country, whether it is infrastructure, education, or power.

“I had an argument with a university professor from the Federal University, Lokoja. He said he read in my policy document that I intended to devolve, in other words, to return education to the states. How dare I do that?

“I said, ‘Mr. Professor, do you realize that the first set of our universities belonged to the regional governments?’ He said, ‘Yes’. I said who are the successors of the regional governments? He said the states.

“I said the children you send to America, to England, who own those universities? Mostly the private sector. So, why is it that you think we cannot do it here? We don’t have the money.”

Atiku also spoke on one of his major goals in vying for the 2023 general election is to unite Nigerians to fight insecurity.

Speaking on his five-fold plan for the country if elected, the former vice-president said, “Since the return of democracy, Nigeria has never been in such a critical situation as we find ourselves now. The problems of poverty, insecurity, unemployment, etc, are enormous but what is important is how to tackle them.

He also spoke about his plan to manage the economy by abolishing the multiple exchange rate and devolving more power to the states.

“When PDP came into power in 1999, despite winning overwhelmingly across the country, we decided to include members of another party in our leadership. That singular action united the country and resulted in calm. I believe we can have that experience again. It is only when we have a sense of belonging that we can deal with insecurity.”

Tinubu will replicate Lagos, Borno wonders in Nigeria —Shettima

Speaking at the event, Shettima, who represented the APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, said their ticket is the best because of their skill set, capacity, and past achievements in office.

He said, “He is a city boy, I am the golden boy. In Jim Ovia’s words, competence is what people are assessed by. We have mentored men who have excelled in all aspects of human endeavors.

“I urge lawyers to be resolute, firm, to make bold, informed decisions, not emotional decisions. Align with the visions of APC candidates; we’ll create a Lagos experience all over the country. Make informed judgment, and vote for competence and capacity. Asiwaju is the man to beat.

He went on: “When Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu became governor of Lagos State in 1999, there was only one ambulance in the service of the Lagos State Government, now Lagos is earning N51billion every month as its internally generated revenue.

“Lagos is the third largest economy in Africa and the world is in transition. What is important is a Nigerian leader of the next dispensation must be a leader who has a mastery of financial management capabilities and someone who understands Nigerian psychology and someone who appreciates and understands the complexity of the Nigerian nation.

“Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has established an excellent track record for performance. He has mentioned men and women who are excelling in different fields of human endeavors and  the world is changing and the trajectory of global growth facing Africa and Nigeria will make or mar that transition.”

According to him, these days when other parts of the world are talking about artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, biotechnology, etc., Nigeria needs a leader with the requisite skill set and understanding of the global economy to shepherd it in this age.

Speaking about himself, he said, “In the history of Zenith Bank, no one, I dare say, apart from the legendary Ada Umeji, grew faster in the history of Zenith than my humble self.

“I urge my friends here to be rational, firm and have the boldness and courage to make informed decisions, not emotional decisions. Here we are on the threshold of making history. In the United Kingdom, a young man of Indian descent is about to become the Prime Minister,” Shettima stated.

NBA-AGC: 2023 election not about religion, tribe but character, competence ― Peter Obi

In his presentation, Mr. Peter Obi said the 2023 election will not be about religion or tribe but character and competence in leadership.

He said:  “Nigeria is in a mess. We got here simply because of the cumulative effect of bad leadership. The coming election is not about tribe or religion but about character and competence. We need a bold transition from a highly insecure state to a highly secure state.”

Obi also stated that his approach to tackle the worsening exchange rate problem in the country will be to encourage manufacturing and export of goods and services.

CJN, Sanwo-Olu, others canvass reform of judicial system

Also at the conference, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, Lagos State governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, renowned author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and several other speakers had earlier canvassed a reform of the Nigerian judiciary to position the country on the path of transformational change.

In his speech, Justice Ariwoola, who was represented by the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Kazeem Alogba, said the bar and bench must return to the days  the ethics of the legal profession was upheld and enforced, saying  there couldn’t be peace in Nigeria without justice.

He said the justice sector was very important to the survival of Nigeria, stressing that all stakeholders must ensure  it was  protected and improved upon, so it could continue to provide hope for the masses.

On his part, Governor Sanwo-Olu said the state’s judicial system had upheld the legacies of past administrations in the improvement of the legal practice in the country.

The governor, who was represented by the state’s Attorney-General,  Moyosore Onigbanjo,  stated: “We have continually transformed our structures, building new courtrooms, renovating existing ones, to create a more conducive environment for our judges and to efficiently administer justice.

“I can boldly say that no state takes the funding of judiciary as serious as Lagos State, and this is a legacy that has been sustained by successive administrations since 1999.’’

Nigeria in disarray, need heroes  — Chimamanda Adichie

In her keynote address, titled, ‘Bold Transition’, Ms. Adichie noted that Nigeria is currently in disarray and in dire need of heroes to give her purposeful leadership.

She stated that the rising insecurity in the country is a fundamental problem of the failure of the rule of law.

Adichie, who also noted that NBA has a great role to play in the success of the forthcoming general elections in the country, said:

“We are counting on the NBA to act as our collective social conscience in the forthcoming election in 2023.

“Nigeria is in disarray. Things are hard and getting harder by the day. We can’t be safe when there is no rule of law. Nigerians are starved of heroes to look up to.  “Late Dora Akunyili and Gani Gawehimmi were heroes that Nigerians looked up to before now. Unfortunately, that era has gone. I believe that NBA is in a position to give the nation heroes that we can look up to lead the nation.

“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 criticize the government. We cannot hide our institutional failure while demanding transparency from the government.’’

Adichie  advocated  an uncorrupted judicial system and called on the NBA to leverage technology in the judicial process and the administration of justice in the country. “Nigerians are disillusioned because they know of the decline of professionalism in some sections of the legal profession. As the NBA continues to fight the abuse of power, it must also look inward not to be corrupted.”