Some of the presidential candidates for next year’s election attended the 2022 conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Lagos where they spoke about the country’s leadership challenges.

Some of the candidates who attended the conference were Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), Adewole Adebayo of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), and Dumebi Kachikwu of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).

Bola Tinubu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) who were originally invited to the conference did not attend.

Kashim Shettima, a former Borno State governor and APC running mate, however, represented Tinubu.

The 62nd NBA conference officially opened on 19 August and will continue till 26 August.

The theme of the conference is ‘Bold Transitions.’

Atiku said the electorate should look out for an experienced leader.

“I believe we have had an experience and that experience must be brought back,” he said.

Atiku said that since the emergence of the current administration, the country has recorded “all the negative indices. Today we are more disunited.”

He said the level of insecurity and poverty has risen in measures never been seen.

Atiku said any candidate that emerges as the president must confront some key areas.

He explained that unity, economy, security, and devolution of power must be confronted.

Shettima urged Nigerians to vote for a leader that had the “skill set for global economy.”

He said the leader that has transformed Lagos’s economy into one of the largest in Africa and has “mentored men and women” has the capacity to lead the country.

For Obi, what Nigeria’s electorate needs is “a visionary leader.”

He said that with the level of insecurity and economic “mess,” “next year’s election should be about character, capacity, competence.”

Oluwole of the SDP also said that there is a need for the political class to “stop stealing.”

PT