Let us move from voting based on tribe and religion to voting for competence and capacity – Peter Obi

Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, has issued a stark warning: Nigeria will continue to experience “failed leadership” if its citizens persist in voting based on tribal affiliations instead of prioritizing competence and capacity.

Obi emphasized that without “competence, capacity, character and compassion,” no nation’s leadership can magically improve. In a post on his official X handle on Monday, the former Anambra State governor observed that Nigerians have already witnessed the consequences of leadership lacking these essential qualities.

He elaborated, “Leadership of a nation is such that it’s either succeeding or failing, none can be hidden. There are critical areas of leadership that must exist for a nation to move forward, and these are summed up in four Cs: Competence, Capacity, Character and Compassion. Where these four are non-existent, there is no magic you can do.”

“Leadership of a nation is such that it’s either succeeding or failing, none can be hidden. There are critical areas of leadership that must exist for a nation to move forward, and these are summed up in four Cs: Competence, Capacity, Character and Compassion. Where these four are non-existent, there is no magic you can do.

“It’s in this line that I have always maintained that we must move away from voting based on tribe and religion, and begin to vote for people with competence, capacity, character, and compassion, because we have all seen, painfully, what leadership without these qualities has done to our country,” Obi’s post read.

“Competence because Nigeria today needs a leader who understands the issues, who has the knowledge, experience, and clear ideas to solve them. Capacity because it is not a ceremonial position; it requires strength, stamina, and the mental energy to confront our complex challenges.

“And above all, leadership must be rooted in character and integrity because without “integrity, public trust collapses, corruption thrives, and selfishness takes over. But perhaps most importantly, we need compassion, because when a leader lacks compassion, human lives are treated as statistics, and suffering is ignored.”