So I have observed for quite sometime now that most Nigerians do not like to vote smart intelligent intellects to power, rather we shuffle the same old set and complain for the next four years. With a population of about 200 million, Nigeria is not lacking intellects from any tribe. Nigerians worldwide are achievers in medicine, technology, finance and creative arts but when it comes to leadership these people shy away because their names will be dragged in the dirty water of politics and the people they sought to help will also aid this.

This has been on my mind but became more pronounced recently when I became actively involved in politics in the last local council elections in my state and started going for town hall meetings and contributing to my community. I heard of a German trained PhD holder in Economics who returned recently and was contesting for the Chairmanship position. I did not take this very seriously until one day he came to our town hall to speak. This man had ideas, this man was intelligent, this man inspired me there and then he had vision and seemed to understand that although the LGA's resources were limited for his ideas he had even come up with ways to raise funds and make the LGA self sufficient. He had actually done his research and talked about presenting ideas to the Government but was rejected because those in power will dismiss any proposal where they stand to gain nothing personally. I have no idea if he would have put these ideas to practice if elected but to me it was far better to vote someone who at least had a vision than the regular thugs that occupy such positions. Right there and then people started to make side comments about him. He speaks to much grammar, he is not the Governors anointed candidate, he is not from the right village, like really? I was surprised at my people. He lost however, to someone who i'm not sure has a CV and did not attend a university and has been a politician boy of the Governor with no prior achievements I know about or any known businesses.

It amazes me that even if we plan to rotate power in this country by Geo-political zones, each region does not bring their best but instead vote in popularity and tribal alliance.

The west has Akinwumi Adesina, Babatunde Fashola, Prof. Yemi Osinbanjo the North has Amina Mohammed, Nuhu Ribadu the east has Ngozi Okonjo-Iwealla, Peter Obi, Sullivan Chime the south has Prof. Pat Utomi, Evelyn Oputu, Donald Duke and countless other intellects all around the world who have made notable achievement in their field but somehow when it comes to elections we present people of questionable character. These names listed might not be your favorite or the best but I believe you get the point if you want to.

Leadership in the US has mostly been rotational so there might not be much wrong in it, but please as Nigerians we must see it our duty to present the best candidates from our zone. Regardless of party affiliations, we need more smart people in power because right now the opposition and party in power just seem like the same set of people with the same old motives decamping and camping as they see fit.

Your post is the simple Nigerian reality.

They prefer voting in dullards like themselves, based on emotional sentiments.

Nigerians are too emotional, that's why we keep voting thugs and touts into power.

Just check out from the council chairmen to the president, 90% of them are pure misfits and opportunists.

In the last presidential elections, they ignored all the young, intelligent and vibrant people, and voted in a brain-dead old man, who cannot make any sensible speech except it's scripted for him.

BianoJay:
In the last presidential elections, they ignored all the young, intelligent and vibrant people, and voted in a brain-dead old man, who cannot make any sensible speech except it's scripted for him.

He finds it difficult to read scripts...............

I’ve observed that too! It’s been happening right from ‘independence’ to date! You may get intelligent individuals becoming Governors or Premiers in the states or regions...as the case may be, but this only happens if they’re supported by the state or regional godfather; or if the powerful centre is willing to not interfere and let the popular candidate win!

Notice how intelligent individuals like Zik and Awo never became Head of State, while a succession of less intelligent individuals have been ruling one after the other!

Remove Fashola and Nuhu Ribadu from that list , those 2 have nothing nothing to offer

The work is hard enough as it is, putting an intelligent person there would make it much harder.

You have to have street smarts.

Intelligent people would just be doing sme sme and being nice, that wont help.

Self- centered nature, ignorance and greed.Classic nigerian mentality

It cut across all sectors, millions are spent on irrelevant programmes, beauty pageants but peanuts are spent on intellectual programmes, education and scientific researches.

Even in BBN, imagine the kind of people Nigerians were voting for to win.
The average Nigerian artiste sings trash, but they pay to get airplay and the talented ones are being ignored. Imagine the support naira marley is getting.

And we say the country is not progressing? Why will it, when we keep supporting the wrong things based on greed, sentiment and ignorance

NimrodEndOfDays:
He finds it difficult to read scripts...............

You can imagine!

How can we move forward as a nation with such people at the helm of affairs? Can someone give what they don't have?

nlPoster:
The work is hard enough as it is, putting an intelligent person there would make it much harder.

You have to have street smarts.

Intelligent people would just be doing sme sme and being nice, that wont help.

This post of yours sounds very ridiculous, honestly!

What's the essence of intelligence if not putting it into use in difficult situations?

The mods won't push this very sensible topic to front-page o...if na "Regina Daniels flashes cleavage" now, e for don reach front page.

GamalNasser:
Remove Fashola and Nuhu Ribadu from that list , those 2 have nothing nothing to offer

The children of hate and perdition have arrived

I had a similar thought recently.
I have an unpopular opinion about democracy. I do not believe it is the best way to elect rulers especially in developing countries. Election is more of a popularity contest than a means of choosing those best fit for the job. People choose their leaders based on charisma, popularity and sentiments like religion and tribe.
For democracy to work, you need well educated voters that can analyse the policies of the contestants and make a reasonable decision. Unfortunately we don't have that in Nigeria or most developing countries.
Until the people become better educated or we change our way of choosing our leaders, we will continue to elect misfits.

NB: I do not support military (just need to say)

They should use their intelligence to get themselves meaningful support.If they are really intelligent,they would know what to do and won't be getting jamb score votes.
Like someone commented above,election is more of a popularity contest,with your street smarts also a big determining factor and all these happens even in developed nations.

tartar9:

The children of hate and perdition have arrived

What hate ?

Fashola is the worst administrator I have ever come across in life after Buhari ..
Failed as governor
Failed as minister of power
Failed as a lawyer ..
That man is the epitome of incompetence after Buhari !!! A man that couldn't complete a mere 35 km Lekki Epe road in 8 years even after spending over 35 billion naira and collecting toll

Rdgardless, is the voting process transparent.

How will one vote an intelligent intellect when the umpire has been bribed by a dullard who knows he has no chance but will bribe the supposed prof who is coordinating the process.

Secondly, there are too many political thugs in positions, illiterates, tribal jingoists, ethnically biased nonentities and religious bigots who have many followers and supporter that will always never allow an intelligent person win because we all have one vote each and there are more disillusioned voters than reasonable ones regardless of who they support.

ENG0701:
I had a similar thought recently.
I have an unpopular opinion about democracy. I do not believe it is the best way to elect rulers especially in developing countries. Election is more of a popularity contest than a means of choosing those best fit for the job. People choose their leaders based on charisma, popularity and sentiments like religion and tribe.
For democracy to work, you need well educated voters that can analyse the policies of the contestants and make a reasonable decision. Unfortunately we don't have that in Nigeria or most developing countries.
Until the people become better educated or we change our way of choosing our leaders, we will continue to elect misfits.

NB: I do not support military (just need to say)

I think confederalism is the best for nigeria. India has it

GamalNasser:


What hate ?

Fashola is the worst administrator I have ever come across in life after Buhari ..
Failed as governor
Failed as minister of power
Failed as a lawyer ..
That man is the epitome of incompetence after Buhari !!! A man that couldn't complete a mere 35 km Lekki Epe road in 8 years even after spending over 35 billion naira and collecting toll

Fashola never failed as Governor.I dont know about his achievement as a minister but dont say he failed as a governor in fact he is one of the best governor in his time..Tinubu is riding on the good will. Pls you dont have to be bias.

This man has a point. The problem in Nigeria is poverty. Until poverty is alleviated, we won't move forward. People who are hungry cannot vote right. Intelligence no help anybody, bring money that's what the average Nigerian thinks. No matter your ideas, degrees or intelligence they will find something to discredit your work just so they feel good about themselves. Don't bother going into politics if you're intelligent without money.

The intelligent people are so intelligent to learn political intelligence.

Too many dumb kids on this thread. They are confusing academic qualifications and fancy speech for smartness.

Most Nigerian academically qualifirf people cannot lead, innovate or adapt. Rank failures.

The Innoson Motors owner is not academically qualified and speaks bad english but there are many automobile engineers and MBAs in Nigeria.

The great weakness of Nigeria is leadership skills and innovative ability

We never let them get into power fact we have never had an intelligent leader. Sowore how far are we still in this one Nigeria projects or Oduduwa?

nlPoster:
The work is hard enough as it is, putting an intelligent person there would make it much harder.

You have to have street smarts.

Intelligent people would just be doing sme sme and being nice, that wont help.

El- rufai is intelligent. He is definitely not nice. intelligent persons only take decision based on their intellect. That is : you need to convince them with reasoning and logic to get them to do a task. political God fathers prefer unintelligent personsvtgey can convince and control easily. Even Peyer Obi could not be manipulated into giving money to mbaka. something non intelligent persons would do easily.logical persons will follow the narrow route even if it will hurt millions provided he is convinced it is the best

Nigeria is too emotional for logical persons

It's about party members, they always chose someone they would be able to manipulate.

The people are always stuck with 2 bad choices like Atiku and Buhari.

That's why our biggest problem besides the entity called Nigeria are the political parties. Same old fools

Jimi24:
Too many dumb kids on this thread. They are confusing academic qualifications and fancy speech for smartness.

Most Nigerian academically qualifirf people cannot lead, innovate or adapt. Rank failures.

The Innoson Motors owner is not academically qualified and speaks bad english but there are many automobile engineers and MBAs in Nigeria.

The great weakness of Nigeria is leadership skills and innovative ability

You can make your opinion known without being condescending.

Most of the people we're talking about are people who have proven to be achievers even on the international scene: they're people who have held leadership positions at international organizations.

Modified: it's still not easy to get some good academic qualifications, bro! What does your president have? Is he street smart?

omoharry:
Fashola never failed as Governor.I dont know about his achievement as a minister but dont say he failed as a governor in fact he is one of the best governor in his time..Tinubu is riding on the good will. Pls you dont have to be bias.

not only Tinubu IMO the entire APC was built on fashola success as governor, he was the poster boy of ACN thereby making people notice the opposition. Then ACN got more states and people started noticing PDP fuckup. Then the merger boom we have APC

THAT IS WHY THE COUNTRY IS A ZOO

Nice one. I have the full video

BianoJay:


This post of yours sounds very ridiculous, honestly!

What's the essence of intelligence if not putting it into use in difficult situations?

My point is intelligence doesn't work in Nigeria!

You need uncommon street smarts if you want to be a leader.

I didn't read the write up but I'm responding to the thread title.

Fashola. Lagos Ibadan Minister

The south south have Rotimi Amaechi

BianoJay:
The mods won't push this very sensible topic to front-page o...if na "Regina Daniels flashes cleavage" now, e for don reach front page.

this post indirectly insinuates that our current leaders e.g buhari is unintelligent. if pushed to front page, DSS will harrass nairaland owner

tartar9:
They should use their intelligence to get themselves meaningful support.If they are really intelligent,they would know what to do and won't be getting jamb score votes.
Like someone commented above,election is more of a popularity contest,with your street smarts also a big determining factor and all these happens even in developed nations.

intelligent persons principle is merit. They discuss issues and believe they should be voted based on their technical ability.
unintelligent persons are driven by greed for power. they would do anything including empty promises,rigging,bribing to get there.

the current political structure is for the unintelligent