Ezekwesili: Obi better than Tinubu, Atiku — even though he’s from same political class

Oby Ezekwesili, former minister of education, says Peter Obi, standard bearer of the Labour Party (LP),  is more competent than other leading presidential candidates for the 2023 election.

She spoke on Sunday during a Channels TV interview where she attributed Nigeria’s current situation to leadership failure.

Ezekwesili said the former Anambra governor “ticks certain parts of the boxes” regardless of what parameters are used to evaluate leadership.

“Somebody says to you between a cast of possible presidents that include the three frontrunners that we currently have – a possible president Tinubu, Atiku, and Obi – do you need anybody to tell you where you would be going? It would be an Obi,” Ezekwesili said.

“Regardless of the fact that he comes from that particular political class that we are talking about, he still at least represents many more shapes than the other two top candidates.

“We have actually lacked the kind of leadership that in one person and persons, in other words, our leadership class and our political class, we’ve not seen an amalgam of people with the requisite skills of leadership.

“Skills of leadership are not ad hoc, they’re not things that happen by virtue of somebody thinking ‘I could be a leader’. So those attributes of competence, of character, of capacity – there is a deliberateness behind it that then enables people to mobilise the kind of action that is necessary to deliver.”

The former education minister lauded the youth movement behind Obi, saying the momentum intends to “deeply evaluate the kind of leader to be elected” in the face of bad leadership in the country.