Lumumba to Presidency, NASS: Sanitise the polity

Former Director of Kenyan Anti-Corruption Commission, Professor Patrick Lumumba, has described Nigeria’s leadership problem as the missing link in Africa’s greatness, warning that if not resolved, it could negatively affect the continent.
He also asked both the executive and legislative arms of the Nigeria government to sit up, avoid bickering and sanitise the polity.
Professor Lumumba stated this while addressing an audience via Skype as a keynote speaker at the opening Alternative (SOTA), tagged ‘Citizens Framing the New Nigeria of our dream’, in Abuja yesterday.
The keynote speaker expressed the hope that those who assembled in Abuja, Nigeria under the SOTA umbrella were doing the right thing.
He said: “You must all speak up to the Nigerian politicians and to the Nigeria electorate that the time has come for us to change the narratives.
You in Abuja and you who know Africa is a continent under siege, this is the time for Nigeria to provide leadership, this is the time for the Nigerian Senate, this is the time for the Nigerian President and other politicians to liberate Nigeria, this is the time for the Nigerian leaders to recognise that politics must be sanitised.
“Because when politics is sanitised, society is sanitised.
This is the time that Nigeria must know that her economy must grow, this is the time that Nigeria must reawaken her textile industry, this is the time that Nigeria must improve agriculture, this is the time that Nigeria must improve on health delivery so that her President will not surgeon in foreign land.” He charged Nigerians that, “the time is now, and if we don’t act, then Africa is doomed.
And I must agree with the writer of the Bible that, there is a time for everything, this is the time for Nigeria.
“The only thing that continues to hold Nigeria are the political elite who are supposed to recognise that the leadership position is a transition, I want all to recognise that true leadership is service to humanity, we all must recognise that when they lead Nigeria, they also lead Africa.” Earlier in her opening remarks, former Minister of Education and the National Coordinator of the Red Card Movement, Dr.
Obi Ezekwesili, explained that SOTA was out to propagate what an ideal society should be.
She added that, ” this is a summit that says no longer are we going to allow ourselves to be led by the worst amongst us, while the rest only complain, it is a summit that is sending a signal that a new Nigeria is possible.” According to her, the SOTA programme was aimed at empowering Nigerians to start that revolutionary move that will change the political narratives of the Nigeria, so as to be bring about meaningful development.
SOTA is a two-day event organised by some concerned citizens under the auspices of Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), YIAGA Africa, Enough is Enough (EiE), Nigeria First, BudgiT and the Red Card Movement.