The president said it is the responsibility of Nigerians to change “a leadership which recycles tired brains and bones, recycles empty promises, recycles thieves in public offices and is generally out of tune with the global trends of nationhood and leadership.”
Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin in a keynote address entitled, “Arise O Compatriots” said that the major problem with the Nigerian state was that it was big on rhetoric but small on realities. Continuing, she observed that there was an ever present curious willingness by succeeding administrations to restrict emerging nationalists to regional spaces, thereby curtailing nationalism in the process. According to this egg-head, the current state could not call on compatriots across the nation as it lacks the essentials to do so. The political leadership is a picture of doom, it does not inspire confidence in anyone except in the few beneficiaries of culture of instituted looting in Nigeria. Dr. Okei-Odumakin called on Nigerians to rise up as citizens who desire to create a new leadership; as the longer these discredited tired men and women are allowed to remain in power, the farther the beacon of civilisation dims in Nigeria for Nigerians! Concluding she said that Nigerians must create a new leadership, a new nation which competes with its peers - a nation where the people own ownership! Icheokudotcom says, what a well spoken and articulated speech! However the elite middle-class of Nigerians ought to join to bring about the desired change in leadership which Nigeria desperately needs. In Pakistan, the lawyers were able to bring down President Musharraf from power because they had bigger clout which attracted formidable attention to their cause. So when is the Nigerian middle class answering this call?