Akinwunmi Ambode, a former Lagos State governor, has issued a warning: insecurity in Nigeria won’t stop unless Nigerians unite together.
At the 2024 Leadership Colloquium and Award hosted by the Akinjide Adeosun Foundation, Ambode lectured on the topic of “Economic Asphyxiation – The Wisdom of Authentic Leaders.”
The colloquium took place on Monday at Alliance Francaise in Ikoyi. According to Ambode, the economic suffering that the nation is currently facing is not President Bola Tinubu’s fault.
He implored Nigerians to put an end to assigning blame and to show patriotism for their nation.
He said, “Until we decide ourselves to say that we should unite for the common cause called Nigeria, the security issues will not go.
“We are all in a position to actually support Mr President; let us start to look at it from a different prism.
“We don’t have to wake up in the morning and be talking ill of Nigeria. We get what we profess about Nigeria.”
According to Ambode, Nigeria’s issues have a lengthy history and require a daring leader to resolve.
“It has nothing to do with the singular person called Mr President; but if we don’t understand the fundamentals, we will start doing the blame games. We need to face our problems frontally.
“The major issue is that we are even tired of not fixing our issues. Now, we have found somebody that has decided to do so, in person of President Tinubu,” he said.
While giving his candid advice to Nigerians, he also called on Leaders in various levels to stand by the people in order to fight against the rampaging hardship.
“You must stand in front and show them that you are in the challenge with them. You must show them empathy.
“Authentic leadership is more about the emotional intelligence and actually understanding the frustration of the followers. What is going on around them?
“The issue is, we cannot afford to play propaganda because something is bad but we keep saying that it is not bad,” he said.