Quite frankly, Nigeria is in short supply of leaders who demonstrate that public office is basically an avenue for selfless service to humanity. The country is lacking in public officials who seek only things that have direct bearings on the welfare and security of the people, through good governance. There is an acute dearth of minds and hearts that support the ideology that true leadership is about serving others.

The great leaders of the black race unfortunately, is bereft of great humanists who do not see whatever differences in tongue, culture, class, religion and political inclinations as challenges, but rather, as opportunities to elevate and deploy those core values that deepen our common humanity.

Again, Nigeria is in dire need of leaders who are largely pedigreed, having been already accomplished in their various fields of endeavour, and whose attractions to public office do not in any way include self aggrandizement. We lack office holders who are conscious of legacies through life-touching ventures, and also driven by passion for benchmarked services to the people and above all, defined by profound sense of nationalism, inclusiveness, objectivity
and strategic thinking.The foregoing cumulatively is the bane of national development.

Availability of change-agents and transformational leaders who are also
selfless and committed to national
unity, is what Nigeria desperately
needs now to move forward speedily. It is even more rewarding when these public officials serve as legis￾lators. In such capacities, they stand out as true advocates of their constituents, progressive-minded, detribalized and serving with dignity and honour.

As legislative activists, they are visionary, empathetic and always in￾spiring hope. All their programmes and activities are aimed at connecting the people to good governance. They find fulfillments in mentoring others and in their politics, there is always a place for morality.
Yet lamentably once again, such
servant-leaders are in the minority.

Nevertheless and among those rare few, as purposeful research re￾veals, there is Senator Ahmad Ibra￾him Lawan, representing the Yobe North Senatorial District and by the special grace of the Almighty, President of the 9th Senate. By eve￾ry standard of objective assessment,
he is an embodiment of a true leader.
From the classrooms where he moulded many lives he moved to political leadership where he is crea￾tively inspiring and mentoring futu￾re great leaders.

And so for the fair-minded who are also guided by thoughtful ex￾amination of his leadership trajec￾tory and service credentials, the emergence of Lawan as chairman of the National Assembly is invariab￾ly one of the best things that Nige￾ria has witnessed in the recent times. Going by his published blueprint pri￾or to election and then performance records so far, he is not only full of ideas for a much better Nigeria, he is vastly knowledgeable on how the country can surmount her numerous challenges.

His pan-Nigeria disposi￾tions are quite compelling. His be￾liefs and activities towards nation building are contagious and che￾rished by the unbiased public and fellow progressive-minded. He is an exemplary democrat. He is a man of uncommon courage with proven pas￾sion to offer leadership that is capab￾le of changing the fortune of Nigeria and rewriting her story.

As the head of Nigeria’s high￾est legislative body, he has a way of
seamlessly making his colleagues un￾derstand the purposes for which they
are entrusted with people’s mandate.

This he achieves by his near-collegial
style of leadership. He believes that
Nigerians have a right to raise legiti￾mate questions and are also entitled
to good governance and quality ser￾vice delivery. He advocates that it is
only by close collaborations among
arms and tiers of government, sup￾ported by effective communications,
that good governance is optimal￾ly delivered to the people. And then
probably due to his pedigree, he is
always seeking to deepen the know￾ledge and perspective of others.

This is the reason today there is a senate
bound by unity of purpose and dili￾gent commitment to national inte￾rest, which Lawan has since proudly christened the “Senate That Works For The People”.

Despite his influence and exal￾ted position, Lawan has not departed
from who he truly is. He remains a
man of remarkable simplicity who￾se understanding of public affairs is
unimpeachable.

A social survey of his constituen￾cy presents one with a people’s ad￾vocate and representative par ex￾cellence. In Nigeria’s history, Lawan is the first and still the only presi￾ding officer of the legislature whose imprints are conspicuous across the length and breadth of his constitu￾ency, despite the understandable dis￾tractions that such office comes with. Households feel the impacts and due dividends of his representation. No wonder he has being in the legisla￾ture since 1999, uninterruptedly through the ballots. His words mir￾ror his thoughts the way his deeds are consistent with his words.

His guiding philosophy is that an enlightened, healthy and econo￾mically-empowered people transla￾tes to a viable, virile and developed polity.

And in this wise, farmers, in￾cluding cattle breeders, petty traders, market people, the aged, the vulne￾rable and the youth are unanimous that his instituted annual free medi￾cal outreach and education support programmes, as well as periodic fa￾mily support and economic empo￾werment interventions, are progres￾sively-lifting people out of poverty.

This is as undisputable as it is veri￾fiable.
Lawan has been tagged with all
sorts of labels since he became se￾nate president. But he creditably ju￾stifies his actions and defends his choice to collaborate with the other arms. Particularly, he is always mind￾ful that Nigeria is still bearing the brunt of missed opportunities and that we cannot afford to miss yet another opportunity to get it right.

He knows history, understands the
moods of the public and is a visio￾nary on matters of public policy. The
manner he spearheaded Nigeria’s
budget reforms and fight against the
coronavirus pandemic are enough
illustrations.

The same is also said about his vocal and principled stance on the nagging issue of insecurity.

Certainly, he has a relative solution
but his powers to act are limited by
the constitutions, otherwise the Na￾tional Assembly has since churned out pragmatic legislations for statu￾tory executive actions. Lawan plays
his roles with an uncommon inten￾sity and attention to details.

In addition to being a good party man who believes in strengthening political processes such as internal democracy and supremacy of the par￾ty, Lawan pursues and dispenses bipartisan political leadership.Of course, the ballots that made him senate president cut across re￾ligious, regional and partisan lines.

Again, his swift intervention through
President Muhammadu Buhari, sa￾ved the governing All Progressives’
Congress, APC, from near implosi￾on.

Though this is common know￾ledge as well, four days before the emergency national executive com￾mittee, NEC, meeting, Lawan had met PMB on APC’s imminent disin￾tegration where he hinted that “I had the opportunity to discuss that with the president who is the leader of the party in Nigeria and by the grace of
God in the next few days we will see
certain actions will be taken.”

Senator Lawan thinks Nigeria first. He recognizes and respects the
distinction between politics and go￾vernance. He is inherently dispas￾sionate on issues of governance and national interest. His dreams and vi￾sions are for a Nigeria where peace
and unity reign supreme.

There abound factual informa￾tion about Ahmad Lawan’s unque￾stionable determination and dedi￾cation to revamping the economy.

And by the same token, he is evident￾ly committed to all other socio-po￾litical and economic readjustments
that would give the common man a
new lease of hope, notably constitu￾tion amendments as well as electo￾ral system and petroleum industry
reforms. He is a bridge-builder and
supporter of good and progressive
ideas.

There are veritable evidences that Lawan is a unifier who demon￾strates that we have to firstly under￾stand our strengths and weaknesses, in order to come to middle ground for progress and prosperity. In the best tradition of public service he discharges his duties and constant￾ly preoccupies himself with how to make Nigeria work.

Driven by his astute understan￾ding of Nigeria and her many pro￾blems as highlighted on his agenda for the National Assembly, he can￾vasses that it is only by unity that progress can be made towards sur￾mounting those challenges.

As just a singular testament to his pan-Nigeria outlook, he was in Abia State recently where he reite￾rated his position and proclaimed that „today and indeed even tomor￾row and forever, we can achieve better.

We can achieve more when we are united. Nigeria is designed by the Grace of God to be a nation of many people of different orien￾tation, different sentiments but we must be a people with common pur￾pose and common destiny and this is what we are trying to achieve.

It doesn‘t matter where you come from. It doesn‘t matter what you be￾lieve in. What matters is that you are a Nigerian and the other person next to you is a Nigerian too.

– Egbo is the print media aide to President of the Senate. He writes from Abuja