A former governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode, has charged Nigerians to shun blame games and face the challenges confronting the nation frontally just as he warned that without unity among Nigerians, insecurity will not end.
Ambode spoke at the Akinjide Adeosun Foundation’s 2024 Leadership Colloquium and Award with the theme, “Economic Asphyxiation – The Wisdom of Authentic Leaders.”
According to a statement on Tuesday, the colloquium held at Alliance Francaise, Ikoyi, on Monday.
The statement quoted Ambode as saying that President Bola Tinubu was not responsible for the economic hardship being experienced in the country.
He urged Nigerians to stop blame games and be patriotic about the country.
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”.
Ambode said Nigeria’s problem had a long history and needed a courageous President to fix.
“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 in person of President Tinubu,” he said.
The former governor, while saying Nigerians must think outside the box to address issues facing the country, also noted that Nigerian leaders must stand by the people.
“You must stand in front and show them that you are in the challenge with them. You must show them empathy.
“It (authentic leadership) is more about the emotional intelligence that actually understands 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.
