2023: We will do all we can to promote electoral integrity — Gov Fayemi

The Ekiti State Governor and the Chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Kayode Fayemi, has assured that all would be done by the NGF to promote electoral integrity come 2023.

Governor Fayemi said this while receiving the leadership of Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) led by the National Chairman, Mr Yabagi Sani at the NGF secretariat in Abuja. 

“My primary responsibility in this role that they have elected me to is really to promote, to defend and to protect the interest of office, the onerous task underleaning on their duty as elected officers of States, in order for us to successful do that, we also, as an institution, have established a range of linkages and partnerships with agencies, as well as associations, including both development agencies, that impinge on the delivery of responsibilities to our States. 

“So, receiving IPAC falls within that purview of our Organisation, the Nigeria Governors Forum. I’m happy you are interested in using IPAC as a vehicle for institutional deepening of our Democratic project. 

“We will do all we can do to ensure that democracy trives in our climes, we must do all we can in that respect, to promote Electoral integrity, to also ensure that government deliver in its promises to Nigerians, and these are principles that I think you had espoused in your presentation. 

“We basically promote and protect democracy and we do that in individual States and also in our collective commitment to democracy. We will do our best as a body to support IPAC to deliver in its tasks. 

“We know that this is a crucial and penultimate year to the pre election year, you have been acting in a couple of State like mine and IPAC will have a lot of role to play”, he said.

In his address, the IPAC National Chairman, Engr Sani said the Governors Forum, by and large, is a platform for the Chief Executives of the States who have come together first, as a peer group and a team articulating and projecting policies and programmes aimed at fostering unity, peace, security and good governance. 

He said the Inter-Party Advisory Council on the other hand, is a congregation of all the registered political parties that is similarly, intended to promote harmony and amity among the political parties and between all the arms of government and democratic institutions.  

Sani said the synergy between the NGF and IPAC should therefore, be seen as an effective mechanism for the enhancement and actualization of their mutual goals of strengthening the roots of enduring democracy in our society. 

“Our collective striving for the survival of democracy is, a heroic endeavour against the backdrop of our history that is replete with the sad experiences of truncated Republic with attendant incursions and dictatorships of military regimes.   

“Vigilance and relentless efforts must be continuously exerted by the present generation of Nigerians who have a generational responsibility of being pioneers and builders of democracy,” he said.

He noted that the present leadership of IPAC is positioning the platform to live up to its responsibility of Nigeria in fostering and entrenching democracy in Africa. 

“In this regard, we have mapped out new strategies and programmes such as increasing the level of interface between IPAC and advanced democratic nations, institutions and agencies that have been assisting in the growth of our democracy in the past twenty-three years. 

“Among other practical step that we are putting in place, IPAC has embarked on a project of establishing a continent-wide democracy institute under the name, the African Democratic Institute (ADI) base in Abuja.

“With the aim of having a centre for the teaching of universal philosophy and practice of democracy, the proposed institute is intended to attract scholars, researchers, politicians and workers in democracy-related institutions and agencies. 

“The curricular will be structured to impart the teaching of the universal tenets of democracy, in the context of the peculiar African characteristics, culture and history,” Mr Sani added.

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