By Fortune Eromosele, Abuja

As the 2023 general elections gathers momentum, President of the Princeton Leadership Forum, PLF, Dr. Chibuike Echem, has told Nigerians to avoid ethnicity, religion and vote for competence.

Echem spoke at the maiden edition of the 2022 PLF annual leadership summit/conferment of exemplary hours with the theme: “Politics, Governance and the Impact of Leadership in a Fragile Nation,” held in Abuja.

He advised Nigerians to look beyond sentiments and vote for a competent leader that would drive economic growth and prosperity in the country.

According to him, “We have to vote competence. We must not vote on religion and ethnicity. It’s purely about competence, because if you don’t have a competent leader, you’re going to have the same repetition of issues across the country.

“I believe Nigerians should look beyond the semantics and sentiments and go for who we truly believe can give us leadership in this country. The person doesn’t have to be my brother or come from my tribe, but let us look at the person’s antecedents and competency, that will help us drive our choice for a leader in 2023.”

On what the PLF summit seeks to achieve in the leadership sphere of Nigeria, Echem explained that, “Essentially what we intend to achieve is bringing leaders together to sit down and look at the impact of leadership and its importance in Nigeria, especially in different sectors of the economy.

“Essentially, everybody believes and knows that the problem of this country borders on leadership, and that’s why we are trying to see as an organisation, how we can breach that gap of training. So this year’s summit is to begin that process, it’s an annual event but this is the maiden edition. We have also given awards to leaders who have shown quality.”

In the same vein, Secretary and Director of Administration, National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS-Kuru, Brig. Gen. Chukwuemeka Udaya (retd.), urged Nigerian youths to eschew violence and stop the burning of INEC offices.

He said, “The youths should realise that the country and future is principally theirs. They should avoid things that will disrupt the process of electioneering. If you look at the people involved in ballot snatching and killings, they are young people.

“By destroying ballot boxes and burning INEC offices, they are equally destroying their own future and impoverishing themselves, because resources that would otherwise be used for other things would be put in to replace things that have been destroyed to enable them prepare for election.”

On his part, President of the Ugwumba Leadership Centre and former APC governorship candidate Imo state, Uche Nwosu, has said Nigeria needs to change the narrative of leadership, saying leaders ought to live by example.

He said, “One of the most important part of leadership is what we call influence. If a leader is not able to influence the people he’s leading positively, then be sure that he will influence them wrongly.

“By that, I mean that you are leading people and you’re not showing good example, one of the biggest characteristics of leadership is to show good example. If you’re leader, lead in such a way that people will emulate you.”