CD WANTS QUALITATIVE LEADERSHIP IN STATES, PARTIES

AS political parties pick candidates for the 2011 general elections, the Campaign for Democracy (CD) in Niger State, has urged them to ensure that the next crop of public office holders will provide qualitative leadership for their constituencies.

In a statement issued after a meeting in Minna, Niger State on Wednesday, the group's Secretary-General, Mr. Abdullahi Mohammed, said political parties and public office holders at all levels of governance should 'provide qualitative leadership, and people-oriented programmes to improve the lot of the electorate.'

Mohammed said the CD would soon kick off advocacy and sensitisation campaigns for the electorate so that they can feature in the forthcoming voter registration exercise and the election proper.

The CD commended the Niger State Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu for providing the state 'visionary leadership' since he came to power in 2007, adding that the efforts of his administration had started to yield dividends.

On the spate of bombing in some part of the country, the group charged the Federal Government to be more pro-active on the policing of the nation, especially as the countdown to 2011 begins.

It condemned the bomb blasts in Jos, Plateau State, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) , and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rally in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

Mohammed therefore called on governments at all levels to take security matters serious.