Activist-lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), has urged professional bodies to mobilise their members to obtain their permanent voter’s cards (PVCs) and use their large population to elect the right persons to take Nigeria to the Promised Land.
Falana said this at the 14th annual distinguished lecture organised by the Lagos State chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS) at MUSON Centre in Lagos.
The programme, tagged: Professionals in Partisan Politics: Appraising Their Roles in Envisioning Economic Growth and Development of Nigeria, brought together professionals, lawyers, government representatives and youths from across the country.
Falana noted that for Nigeria to have a new crop of leaders that have proven records of probity, integrity and accountability, professionals must not stay aloof but register to participate in the next year’s general election.
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The popular lawyer said Nigeria is currently in trouble and that professionals need to get organised to take over our country from moneybags who he described as corrupt and self-centred.
He stressed that professionals also need to take a cue from the way young people are mobilising themselves to register for the PVC through creative means because of their interest in a new Nigeria. Falana recalled that father of Nigeria’s nationalism movement and independence advocate, the late Herbert Macaulay, was a quantity surveyor.
The activist-lawyer noted that many professionals of today have become lackadaisical towards politics and governance.
He said the professionals should not leave politics to charlatans who cannot be accountable to anyone for their ill-performance in public office.
NIQS President Olayemi Shonubi urged the institute’s members to continue to promote integrity and accountability in the public and private sectors.
He said the task of building the nation should not be left to the people in government alone but to all discerning Nigerians.
“Let us re-establish the foundation of honesty and integrity, which are definite path to greatness,” he said.