The Executive Director of Fix Politics Initiative, Anthony Ubani has criticised political leaders in Nigeria, noting that servant leadership means to serve the people, not to enrich their pockets.
He said this in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Tuesday.
“Servant leadership means you come into power on the basis of serving the people. Can you conceivably point at anyone in authority today that you can say is serving Nigerians? They are serving their pockets. Somebody comes into power today and doesn’t have a bicycle to his name; by the time he’s leaving office, he has a mansion in his village with six cars, another mansion in Lagos with six cars, and a secret mansion in the US”, he said.
Adding, he revealed that Fix Politics Initiative is not focused on reforming the current leaders but on developing a new generation instead.
“Let me be clear: we are not so much focused on reorienting this generation of leaders because, in my estimation, I think most of them are far too gone. We are focused on a new generation of leaders that have not been corrupted. We want to work on their mindset to ensure they understand the imperative of character.
“If you get a leader who is competent and has the capacity but doesn’t have character, they will destroy the country, the institutions, and democracy. Unfortunately, most of the people we have today are not even competent or capable to lead. It’s a triple worry: no character, no competence, and no capacity.”
Ubani dismissed claims that Fix Politics Initiative accused the Senate of trying to steal the 2027 elections, noting that the civil society bases it’s positions on facts and research, not rumours.
“First, we didn’t accuse anyone of trying to steal the 2027 election. But regarding being data-driven, in Fix Politics, we have a saying that ‘In God we trust, every other person bring your data.’ We are not in the business of parroting gossip. Whatever you see us say or do, be sure we’ve done our homework and research. The facts and numbers are clear”, he said.
Ubani further called for real-time electronic transmission of election results, insisting that results should be uploaded immediately to the official portal in the presence of party agents and observers to ensure transparency.
“Our demand is for real-time electronic transmission of results from the polling units to be made mandatory and non-negotiable. The law they have passed—and take note, nobody has actually seen the text of the law yet, we just saw the President signing something—appears to have compromised “real-time” transmission. Real-time means that immediately the elections are over and results are entered in form EC8A, they are uploaded to the IReV portal in the presence of party agents and observers.”
Speaking on the current electoral law’s network failure clause, Ubani warned that the clause could undermine transparency in the coming elections.
“Regarding the ‘mandatory’ clause; for the integrity of the election to be maintained, you must make electronic transmission mandatory. When the law adds a clause saying ‘if network fails, then they will fall back to form EC8A,’ you have brought in human discretion. If you know Nigeria, you don’t need anyone to tell you that networks will fail because that is what is intended. They will then fall back to that manual form and use discretion. Even though you have electronic transmission on paper, they have already violated it with that clause.”
Ubani stressed that the law can still be challenged, but only through lawful, peaceful action.
“Any Senate in a democracy cannot say they ‘cannot go back.’ They are not emperors or kings; they are servants of the people. How are we going to get them to rescind it? Through peaceful, civil engagement. Civil society will continue to advocate. If peaceful protests are required, we will do that. We will use every legitimate and peaceful means to ensure this law does not stand. It represents regression, and we will not support it”, he said.
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