ABDULRAZAQ ABDULRAHMAN: READY FOR NATIONAL LEADERSHIP

He is presently the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and also the Executive Governor of Kwara State. I strongly believe that he is ready for national positioning. I have watched very meticulously his public positioning for over four years. His calm mien, simplicity and very importantly, his approach to governance especially as it concerns public good I must say remains highly commendable. His leadership of the governors’ forum has now given him the national platform to test his readiness for national leadership and from what is being said about his leadership, it is very clear that Nigeria would be needing him more on a larger rostrum. I really find it difficult to write this kind of essay because as you all know, I am a well-known critic but if the truth is to be told this one time, I really must give myself a waiver. The way he has corralled the Governors forum, walking a tightrope being a member of the ruling party that is “messing” up but having in his membership opposition governors, and still being able to build a bridge of consensus to the point that the forum is now more than ever before a very strong tool for advocacy. I watched how he steered the forum away from being confrontational when governors were thrown under the bus by the government during the forex crises. Governors were made scapegoats as they were pilloried for collecting FAAC and rushing to the mallams, thereby being consigned to the dustbin as major causative factors of the economic mess we find ourselves in. A hot-headed chairman would have “attacked” and we would have lost the much-needed consensus needed by all parties to resolve this matter. But Alhaji calmly diffused the issue with constructive engagement, consensus building and reaching out to strategic portions of the media with fact-based explanations as to how governors could not have been the main cause of the problem. I say kudos to Alhaji and do wish that he would consider an elective office at the centre. I tell you.