The Deputy Governor-elect in Oyo State, Engr. Raufu Olaniyan has assured the people of Oyo State to expect responsible and quality leadership in the next political dispensation in the state.
Engr. Olaniyan was one of the invited guests at the 2nd Annual Ramadan Lecture organized by the Oyo State chapter of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Muslim Community held at the commission’s secretariat, Ibadan on Wednesday.
The Deputy Governor-elect, while responding to the topic of the day,‘Duties and Responsibilities of Leaders and Followers in Democracy: Islamic Perspective, said that the concept of leadership as established by the holy Quran and Hadiths and explained by the guest lecturer has shown that leaders are messengers of their followers, not a burst type.
He implored leaders, irrespective of calling to bear in mind that all leaders will give accounts of their leadership to Almighty Allah who gave them the grace of being leaders.
The Chairman of the occasion and former National Electoral Commissioner, Prof. Lai Olorode in his remark, identified leadership as bane of societal problems in Nigeria.
He expressed that Leadership in Nigeria has failed in its responsibility to train and empower the youth compared to many developing and developed nations in the world today that focus more attention in preparing youths for future challenges.
Prof. Olorode said that the country is blessed enough in terms of resources both human and materials to take care of itself, but lacks good and trustworthy leadership to harness the resources.
While commending the Oyo State chapter of INEC for job well done particularly at the 2019 general elections, urged them to keep promoting justice and fairness.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Bar Mutiu Agboke restated the determination of the commission to continue to execute its programmes in line with the constitution, Electoral Act and other guidelines guiding the electoral processes in Nigeria.
While urging leaders and followers to continue to carry out their duties and responsibilities as mandated by the law of the land, Agboke promised the commission’s continued engagement with all relevant and identified stakeholders in the electoral processes in Oyo State.
According to him, “the lecture last year, before the elections, we talked about our responsibility as election management body, this year’s elections have been conducted and we found that the engagement and conversation should continue. For us, we are calling everybody to task, followers, leaders so that we will know what is expected of us after electioneering processes, the next is governance and we should be able to engage ourselves and make people responsible.”
In his sermon, the Chief Imam, University of Ibadan, Prof. Oloyede AbdulRahman noted that leaders are saddled with the responsibility of protecting the followers, regulate the commonwealth and ensure that they obey the laws of the land.
While urging leaders to imbibe leadership qualities established by the Holy Quran, he reiterated that followers are being influenced by actions and in-actions of their leaders.
Packaged by Kunle Gazali
