Former Governor of Imo State, Achike Udenwa, has decried the rot in Nigeria’s electoral system.
Bellnews reports that former Governor Udenwa said most of Nigeria’s present leaders lack the leadership quality needed to move the nation forward.
In an interview on Saturday with Edmund Obilo’s State Affairs, the former Governor of Imo State noted that voters do not question the integrity and competence of political office aspirants before casting their votes.
He stressed that vote-buying has also affected the country’s electoral system as a result of hardship and poverty.
He condemned the institutional culpability in the rigged electoral process in the country, stating that most politicians buy all agencies that should protect the electoral process.
“Unfortunately, our society has grown to such level where if you say, vote for me, we are no more asking what can you do, what are your antecedents, what type of character do you have. We don’t ask such questions again.
“And of course, even if I don’t vote for you, you can buy your way through. If you have the right amount of money in your hand, you can buy your way through. Ask the courts. Buy everything, everybody. And that is one thing we must curb. Because if we curb with it, we get the correct leadership. We don’t have the correct leadership. We don’t have the right to do. We don’t have the right to do,” he said.
The Governor of Imo State from 1999 to 2007, explained that most politicians aspire for office just for a flamboyant lifestyle and not to grow the nation. He added that most political office holders lack ability and capacity to move the nation forward.
“It is a major problem. Today you see people contesting for all sorts of elections; I want to be governor, you do all sorts of things to become governor. I want to be minister, I want to be a senator and the rest of them. But most of these people don’t have any quality of a leader. They don’t have the qualities you need.
“Some of them are already leading us. Square pegs in a round hole that’s part of the problem. With all honesty, most of those people answer leaders are no leaders, they are no leaders. They don’t even understand where they’re going. A lot of them see the paraphernalia of office looking flamboyant and all that, they see just their attraction, but what do you have to offer to the states,” he added.