The 2022 Committee: Eminent Leaders Met to Build Consensus for National Rebirth

The meeting of 100 leading business, political, civil society and thought leaders in Lagos over the last weekend was to build consensus for national rebirth, the 2022 Committee has said.
A statement issued Wednesday on behalf of the Conveners by the Chairman of THISDAY/Arise Media Group, Mr. Nduka Obaigbena, and former Presidential Liaison Officer to the Senate, Mr. Kashim Ibrahim-Imam, said the meeting which held from February 4 to 6 under the aegis of The 2022 Committee, in a non- partisan retreat to map a new consensus for national rebirth, was attended by 14 current governors, 13 former governors and three former Senate Presidents.
Participants, working in 3 Sub-Committees of National Security, The Economy and Nigeria in Transition, the statement said, “recognised that there is an urgent need to seek common ground and irreducible minimum actions to stabilise the polity at this critical time of transition.”
The statement, coming on the heels of unfounded narratives on the purpose of the meeting, said ”whilst The 2022 Committee is interested in the quality of leadership that will emerge in Nigeria at all levels, we consider attempts to link the Committee with candidates or political parties for the 2023 elections as an unwarranted and unnecessary distraction – candidates are only chosen by political parties and we are not a political party.”
Noting that all the 100 leading lights of the 2022 Committee have the capacity for national leadership, it said amongst the active participants in the work of the Committee were over seven persons, from three or more political parties, who had already publicly declared their aspirations to lead the country but were desirous of working with other patriots for non-partisan greater national goals.
“We must have a secure, peaceful and united nation before we can have candidates for political offices,” it added.
The statement further said that The 2022 Committee believes that “what Nigeria needs today is for all patriots to come together to rescue our nation from all political, economic and security threats, and promote the unity of Nigeria.”
It said the meetings will continue, “as we work with Federal and State Governments, current and future political leaders of all political persuasions, as well as other eminent patriotic citizens, for the greater good of the Nigerian people.”
It therefore called on all patriotic volunteers, who are willing and able, to join this collective effort to stabilise the system so that a new Nigeria, that all can be proud of, could be built