A presidential aspirant under the All Progressives Congress, APC, Dr. SKC Ogbonnia has stated that whereas Nigeria’s democracy assumed an increasingly positive trajectory under former presidents Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan, President Muhammadu Buhari failed in the recently-conducted Ekiti governorship election by “allowing fraudulent use of law enforcement agencies, open buying of votes and thuggery”.
While calling the President “a political hypocrite of high order” for doing the same thing he accused the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, of doing, Ogbonnia accused Buhari of celebrating failure by felicitating with Kayode Fayemi, the All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate who won the election.
Pointing out that Buhari came to power vowing to fight corruption and knows that election financing is the engine of corruption in Nigeria as exemplified by the alleged looting of the $2.1bn military budget under Jonathan administration to finance the 2015 elections, he lamented that the Buhari presidency “has shown no interest whatsoever in blocking the loopholes that created the problem in the first place”.
The presidential aspirant in a statement issued on Tuesday, categorically called on his party leader to borrow a leaf from their two predecessors: Yar’Adua and Jonathan.
He said, “The governorship elections in Anambra and Ekiti States typically serve as a pretest to Nigeria’s general elections in many aspects. The Anambra election of November 18, 2017, which was controlled by money bags, sounded a good warning. Instead of the desired change in line with the electoral laws, the Buhari regime conveniently joined the PDP to ensure that the following election in Ekiti of July 14, 2018, was for the highest bidder. This continuing failure does not bode well for the 2019 general elections. It portends a troubling future for Nigeria’s democracy. It is, definitely, not worth celebrating.”
Ogbonnia then called on the President to, “cease his outlandish celebration of a tainted victory at Ekiti and harken to emulate his predecessors Yar’Adua and Jonathan by adding to our democracy. What Nigeria needs from Buhari is a democracy where the masses, particularly the youth, have a real chance. We need a democracy where the people, instead of money, determine who wins or who loses. We direly need a president of sound egalitarian principles, who is committed to internal party democracy, so that the nominees of the parties can emerge through competition, instead of selection by a corrupt cabal. The Nigerian masses need a president who can demonstrate serious consequences for bad behavior, including electoral malpractices. Where there are no consequences for bad behavior, the bad behavior typically worsens.”
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