TheCable

Akinwunmi Ambode, former governor of Lagos, says the  economic hardship being experienced in the country did not start with President Bola Tinubu administration.

Ambode spok on Tuesday at the 2024 Akinjide Adeosun Foundation (AAF) leadership colloquium and award titled: “Economic Asphyxiation – The wisdom of Authentic Leaders” in Lagos.

Ambode said Nigeria’s problems had a long history and needed a courageous president like Tinubu to fix them.

He noted that the problems can be solved if Nigerians can unite for a common cause.

The former governor of Lagos urged Nigerians to stop the blame games but face the problems and solve them.

“It (challenges) has nothing to do with the singular person called Mr President; but if we don’t understand the fundamentals, we will start doing the blame games. We need to face our problems frontally,” Ambode said.

“The major issue is that we are even tired of not fixing our issues. Now, we have found somebody that has decided in person of President Tinubu.

“Until we decide ourselves to say that we should unite for the common cause called Nigeria, the security issues will not go.

“We are all in a position to actually support Mr President, let us start to look at it from a different prism.

“We don’t have to wake up in the morning and be talking ill of Nigeria. We get what we profess about Nigeria.

“We must think out of the box. We have to feed ourselves. When we start to think by ourselves and today we will resolve the issues concerning Nigeria, we will smile.”

Ambode said no matter how weak the followers are, Nigerian leaders must stand in front and continually show confidence that tomorrow would be all right.

“You must stand in front and show them that you are in the challenge with them. You must show them empathy,” he added.

“It (authentic leadership) is more about the emotional intelligence that actually understands the frustration of the followers, what is going on around them.

“The issue is, we cannot afford to play propaganda because something is bad but we keep saying that it is not bad.”