The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Most Rev Hassan Kukah, yesterday identified politicians as the greatest threat to Nigeria’s democratic enterprise, calling them undemocratic and undisciplined people that have choked the political landscape.
The vociferous religious leader, who disclosed this in a speech he delivered at a workshop on the forthcoming general election organized by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Abuja, warned politicians not to derail the country’s democracy.
“There is the need to make the point that the greatest threat posed to our democracy is posed by the composition of the political class. The political space has been occupied by very many undemocratic and undisciplined people; people who have continued to threaten the very foundations of the existence of our democracy,” he said.
According to Kukah, no matter how well prepared the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the security agencies might be, these characters are hell-bent on foisting their undemocratic tendencies on the system.
At the symposium tagged “National Workshop on Countdown to the 2015 Elections, with the sub-theme: Are Nigerians Ready? Kukah itemized the challenges that all stakeholders in the electoral system must watch out for, saying, “Our preparedness will be based on identifying some criminal tendencies like rigging, disenfranchisement of the electorate, various strategies of manipulating the system, and the connivance of officials associated with the electoral process.”
In his remark at the event, the chairman of the NBA’s Committee on Voter Education and Mobilisation, Joseph Daudu, regretted the resort to violence by politicians in the course of campaigning and condemned the recent shooting of innocent returnees from political rallies in Port Harcourt as well as the burning of opponents’ vehicles and houses in the country. He called on political office seekers to recognize the rights of opponents.
Earlier in a welcome address, the president of NBA, Augustine Alegeh, advised the electorates to resist the allure of gift items from politicians, stressing that Nigerians needed a serious government that would move the country forward.
“We need a government that can attend to our needs, address our insecurity challenges. How we determine the coming elections will determine our fate in the next four years,” he said.
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