Nigeria’s democracy still in bondage, says Atiku

Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 25, 2023 election Atiku Abubakar has said Nigeria’s democracy is still in bondage.

Atiku said this in a statement released on Sunday as Nigerians mark the 2023 Democracy Day on June 12.

According to Atiku, the occasion of Democracy Day is a time for Nigerians to reflect on the country’s journey to becoming a democratic society.
“Democracy without a corresponding commitment to the principles of fairness and fidelity to the rule of play by stakeholders in the processes of conducting elections still leaves the people prostrate to tendencies of dictatorship.
“For our democracy to be fully fledged, it must constantly evolve away from the current practice where the governing elite determines the outcome of elections.

“Democracy and the process of democratization is a constant work in progress. While what we celebrate today is a return to civil rule in Nigeria, the desire to make our democracy self-sustaining and independent of anti-democratic elements is the new frontier of participation by all democrats.

“The challenge ahead of us and the future of our democracy will rely heavily on what we do or fail to do today.

“As I congratulate Nigerians on this day, in celebration of the return to civil rule, I also call our consciousness to the reality that democracy in Nigeria remains in bondage and it will need the energy of all of us to rescue it.”

Meanwhile, during his official broadcast as the nation celebrates the 30th anniversary of June 12, 1993, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said Nigerians must never take democracy for granted.

“It is exactly three decades today that Nigerians went to the polls to exercise their inalienable right to elect a President of their choice to lead the transition from military dictatorship to a representative government of the people.

“The abortion, by military fiat, of the decisive victory of Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the June 12, 1993, presidential election, up to that time, the fairest and freest election in the country’s political evolution, turned out, ironically, to be the seed that germinated into the prolonged struggle that gave birth to the democracy we currently enjoy since 1999.

“In rising to strongly oppose the arbitrary annulment of the will of the majority of Nigerians as expressed in that historic election, the substantial number of our people who participated in the struggle to de-annul the election signified their fierce commitment to enthroning democracy as a form of government that best ennobles the liberty, the dignity of the individual and the integrity as well as the stability of the polity.”