Saturday 9th Oct. 2021: A federal lawmaker from Oyo State, Shina Peller, has stated that the next president of Nigeria should not be chosen based on personality, cult or subjective feelings.
He made the declaration while reacting to a question on whether a former Lagos governor, Bola Tinubu, should be president of Nigeria in 2023, Peller said the president’s office should be based on strong institutions rather than individuals.
According to Peoples Gazette, Peller said the criteria should be set, leaving whoever meets the criteria to occupy the office.
“We need to build an institution now, we do not need to take any single person and be saying we want to now rally around that person. I think let us form an institution, let us identify a criteria and let us see who meets up with the criteria.
“There is no institution that has set up the criteria yet, if the criteria says the next president should be christian, is Asiwaju a christian?,” Peller said.
Peller, a serving member of the House of Rep. Under the All Progressive Congress further stated that relying on personalities to save Nigeria was a mistake, and that the next president should be elected through institutions capable of ensuring the competency of the individuals.
“We have made the mistake two times. There was a time in Nigeria when President Obasanjo was brought from prison and everybody was saying he is the best person that could do this and we started to run around him. The Same thing happened to President Buhari, everybody was saying Mohammadu Buhari is a saint, he is not corrupt and then everyone starts to run around him, I believe this must stop,” Peller said.
