Former governors of Ogun and Anambra State, Mr Gbenga Daniel and Mr Peter Obi, respectively, have described the 2023 election as an opportunity for Nigerians to make the country better or worse.

The two former governors spoke at the fourth annual lecture of FreedomOnline, titled, ‘Nigeria’s political indices: Bright or bleak future?’ in Lagos on Tuesday.

Daniel explained that the only way to see a developed Nigeria is to ensure that Nigerians vote with their brain and not their stomach.

He said, “The next election offers us an opportunity to rewrite the destiny of this country. The decision we make next year will be with us for arguably eight years. That’s long enough to make the country better or make it worse.

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“The only way we can leave the trenches is by putting into power individuals who are realists. We don’t need PowerPoint presentations and well-written manifestos that end up in the dustbin of history. We need leadership that, as they say in the mathematical parlance, ‘show workings.’ Anybody can write and make promises, but we have to be intentional in ensuring that we elect those who know how to bring to life these visions.

 “If someone promises to create television, don’t just clap; ask the person questions on how he intends to do that.

“But again, we would have lost the morality to question our leaders properly if we continued to indulge the menace threatening our democracy: vote-buying.” On his part, Obi condemned Nigerians for not showing enough interest in who leads them, adding that the leadership selection process in Nigeria is poor.

He said, “Someone is about to contest election and nobody is asking about his background. This is someone who has never created wealth in his life and he is making promises.”

Let’s ask questions. Even if he has made wealth, let’s look at his character, behaviour.

“All we are experiencing today is the cumulative effect of leadership failure over the years. We are facing an uncertain future; a future everyone is scared of. We have everything as a country but we lack good leadership. Poor leadership can destroy everything and that is the problem of Nigeria.

“We have no other country; we have no other place to go; we all have to get involved in stopping this abuse.”

While giving his welcome address, Publisher of Freedom Online, Mr Gabriel Akinadewo, said Nigeria was yet to draw a line between governance and politics.