What political leaders can learn from UK election

SIR: After the incumbent PM David Cameron was declared winner of the keenly contested election in the history of Britain with landslide victory for his conservative party, returning the party to majority status, leaders of the major opposition parties, Ed Miliband of Labour, Nigel Farade of United Kingdom Independent Party (UKIP) and Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), announced their resignation instead of blaming party members for their parties poor performance.

In his words, Ed Milliband said “this is the challenge of our time, the fight goes on and whoever is our new leader must know, I know Labour will keep making the case for a country that works for working people once again.

“I believe I have brought a culture to this party, an ability to have disagreement without being disagreeable. That faith will always be my faith, that fight will always be my fight, that cause will always be my cause – and with all of you. Thank you very much,” he said.

The leader of the Liberal party, in his words, “I’m sorry, we lost the election, I take full responsibility of the party’s poor performance at the poll. This is a very dark hour for our party but we cannot and we will not allow Liberal values to be extinguished overnight.”

All the candidates who tendered their resignation before supporters and party loyalists never blamed any party member for their poor performance but took the responsibility upon them and apologised. In Nigeria political chairmen, instead of admitting their mistakes and poor performance of their party will rather look for who to blame.

Nigeria’s political leader must learn how to take full responsibility for their party’s poor performance. It is left to party members if they want the leader to remain at the helm of affairs of the party, like the case of UKIP leader, Nigel Farage whose resignation was later rejected by his party.

Nigerian politicians must do the right thing for their party sake and for the entire country.

•Eniola Daniel, Lagos.