Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State has called on the citizenry to vote responsible people into positions of authority and support them in office. He equally called for the downplaying of ethnic and other parochial considerations in the overall interest of the nation.

Abdulfatah stated this in Ibadan, Oyo State, delivering a paper at a public lecture, organised by the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Oyo State Council. The governor blamed some past leaders of the country for making it impossible for citizens to exhibit the attribute of a nation, adding that some of the present leaders promote ethnic, religious and other anti-Nigerian agenda.

In the lecture entitled: "Nigeria at 55: The Gains, The Pains and the Prospects", the governor, who was represented by his Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Sola Isiaka Gold, submitted that the present crop of leadership in the country and generality of the citizenry had the onerous duty to examine the basis of Nigerian nationhood, with reference to its peculiar history, and chart the way forward for its overall development.

Speaking earlier, the chairman of the NUJ, Oyo State Council, Comrade Gbenga Opadotun, said that the lecture was organised to x-ray the development of the nation at 55 and to chart the way forward.