DAILY TRUST
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has warned that Nigeria could lose its hard-fought democracy if it continues on the current trajectory.
He spoke on Monday in Abuja, as a panellist at a national conference on strengthening democracy in Nigeria, organised by the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD), the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD), the Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre in Africa (PAACA), and the National Peace Committee (NPC).
“We really are at a crossroads in this democratic experiment. We either decide we want to be democratic or we decide to abandon it,” he said, while alluding to the statement that it is the court that now decides candidates or winners, not the people.
He said some of the challenges political parties were facing had moved to governance.
“Now, governance dictates to the political parties, whereas political parties should have been directing governance on what should be done because that is their role. They interact with ordinary people, go on campaigns, and so on,” he said.
He said the challenge should be to see how the National Assembly, through various laws and legislations, can help ensure this objective is achieved.
He recalled that he made some recommendations on the amendment of the Electoral Act, but added that he knew they would not be considered, even though they were made in good faith.
“With the current National Assembly, I don’t see them adopting most of the recommendations I made. As someone said here, we have a National Assembly that is a rubber stamp for the government. But I refuse to agree. It all depends on us,” he added.
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