Polls: Jerry Gana urges voters to come out en masse

A one-time Presidential Candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Prof. Jerry Gana on Monday pleaded with the electorates no to be intimidated by the antics of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC government but to come out en masse and cast their votes in ensuring the exit of the bad government in the country.

Addressing newsmen in Abuja yesterday on the state of the nation, Gana said this became necessary as the administration had failed to provide security for lives and property due to poor leadership and preference for ethnic/religious interest in place of national interest.

According to him, ” Today, if the truth must be told, this hard-earned democracy, attained by the sweat and blood of Nigerians, stands the risk of a carefully planned and ruthlessly orchestrated hijack.

” We have gradually gravitated towards an ugly situation where citizens are unable to neither freely express their views nor choose the company they wish to keep.

“We are all witnesses to increasing cases of political intimidation, repression of citizens’ rights, a threat to the Press, subjugation of the legislature and the violation of the judiciary.”

The one-time Information Minister who called for a holistic restructuring of the Nigerian state where federating units would pay royalties to the federal government also demanded decentralisation of power generation and distribution in a true federal system.

According to him, ” given the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-religious and complex nature of the Nigerian society, our founding fathers acted wisely in settling for a federal system of living together. Wherever such multiplicity exists in the world only the federal system has provided a viable solution for living together in peace.

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“The beauty of a federal system is that it allows each federating unit to look after its basic affairs and to develop at its own pace, propelled by relevant socio-cultural forces. In this way, diversity creates a healthy competition among federating units.”

He cautioned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), security agencies and the electorates to make sure that INEC conducted a free, fair and credible election as this was the only way democracy could survive.

According to him, “at the heart of a truly democratic system is the noble practice of conducting free, fair, and credible elections, so that citizens could freely elect those who govern or preside over their affairs. Free, fair, and credible elections can only be assured in an atmosphere of freedom. Let me say it loud and clear, without credible elections democracy cannot function properly and may even collapse.

“The obvious complicity of security agencies, whose duty it is to protect the electorate and guarantee the sanctity of the electioneering process, in the brazen theft of the peoples’ choice, must be firmly addressed to guarantee the survival of our democracy.

“It is therefore important to again stress that without credible elections democracy cannot exist let alone function properly. This is why I firmly join millions of Nigerians to very strong appeal to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure the conduct of free, fair, and credible elections.

“Given the several wrong steps being taken by both the Government and INEC, plus the recent burning of INEC offices in some parts of the country, Nigerians are becoming deeply concerned and very fearful that the forthcoming elections may be seriously compromised, and therefore not free, fair or credible.

That will be the most unfortunate!!! The path of honour demands that INEC stands out as an independent electoral body, ever ready to conduct free and fair elections. To do otherwise is to ruin our democracy and to painfully throw the nation into unnecessary chaos.”

He blamed poor leadership by the current administration’s poor handling of national interest, ” for non-protection of the right to life of Nigerian citizens from the hands of cross-border terrorists and bandits, compromise of the rights of Nigerian people and subordination of the provisions of our Constitution to unenforceable regional protocols compromise of the territorial integrity of the Nigerian state, by the concealment of terrorist activities, protection of identified terrorists and foreign bandits on the authority of leading members of the ruling party, lack of will to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Nigerian state and subordination and sacrifice of Nigeria’s national interest to ethnic-religious interests.”