Atiku Abubakar
As Nigeria marks Democracy Day on June 12, in commemoration of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election won by business mogul, MKO Abiola, former Vice president, Atiku Abubakar has called for the deepening of democratic values through the conduct of free and fair election and an accountable, transparent government led by visionary leadership.
He said: “We need to canonize the memories of our heroes of democracy by expanding the application of democracy as a mechanism of good governance by making sure that ballots cast during an election are sacrosanct in order for leaders who represent the true aspirations of the people to emerge. The canonization of the heroes of the celebration of Democracy Day is an affirmation of our collective struggles towards a system of participatory government and acceptance of primacy of the rule of law.”
Along the line in the struggle which spanned decades, many a compatriot paid the ultimate price. While today may well be a day dedicated to democracy, it is also very well a remembrance day for our fallen heroes of democratic, he said.
According to him,while ” the late Bashorun MKO Abiola continues to be the symbol of the June 12 struggle, there are many others like the late Chief Alfred Rewane; my mentor, Tafida Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, Alhaja Kudirat Abiola and many more too numerous to mention who lost their lives in order for us to have a democracy. Yet, there are so many other heroes who remain unsung. They are Nigerians who have fallen victims of bad governance.
He said that as the country expands the integrity of the electoral process through acceleration of electoral reforms that make vote count in every election, “voting citizens of the country to undertake a more critical evaluation of national leadership recruitment – a rare gift which democracy guarantees through the instrumentality of periodic elections”
“Between 1999 to the present time, our democracy has thrown up all shades of characters at the leadership levels. Many, if not all of them have tried their best to deliver good governance to the country. But the results of their efforts, judging by what we have at hand today, clearly shows that our best has not been good enough thus far.”
