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Buhari warns on next year’s polls, Miyetti Allah blasts politicians
Desmond Mgboh, Kano; Chukwudi Nweje
National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, declared in Abuja, yesterday, that Nigeria remains a complex country.
Tinubu said as the 2019 general elections draw near, Nigerians must insist on the principle that elections are not played as games by a well-heeled elite while the rest of the nation is left to struggle and starve.
He said this in a lecture, titled: Nigeria and the Challenges of 2019; This is not a game, at the 15th Daily Trust Dialogue, in Abuja, yesterday.
The former Lagos State governor said elections are about service and not just about acquiring power.
“Reform and change are difficult because they are always and everywhere resisted by those who benefit from the old order. But, we must insist on a better life for our people. As such, the electoral politics of 2019 cannot be played as if a game that has no end other than itself. Here, again, we must insist on politics having a nobler and larger goal than just registering certain people into the fraternity of office holders.
“Elections are not the climax of an epic book. They are merely the close of the book’s opening chapter. What comes afterwards– governance-is much more vital than politics, for governance determines how we shall live. Whether we shall inhabit the lush fields of growth and prosperity, or the thorny bog of despair, whether we join in unison, to overcome common social and economic afflictions or allow those afflictions set us against each other, in a ceaseless barrage of recrimination and animosity, whether we stand for justice and fairness for every Nigerian or stand for nothing at all, the quality of governance will determine these important things.
“Politics determines governance and governance defines the life we lead. Thus, politics can never be a game. It is a link in that vital process that spins either toward progress or toward the accumulation of problems and their dire consequences
“People must not only aspire and hold office; they must seek to govern prudently from that office. This is the challenge of 2019. Shall our elections be a game in and of itself or will it be a platform from which we continue to move toward the progressive, responsive governance Nigeria deserves?
“The people must resist all appeals to unthinking passions and old prejudices. We must adhere to what our conscience reveals as the best path to good governance for all.
“For me, that path has always been a progressive one that harks to the need to materially transform the power relationships upon which this political economy is based. Despite the progress made, too much political and economic power resides in the hands of too few. This results in a society described by too much unemployment, inadequate infrastructure, too little food, yet too much poverty.”
He urged the Federal Government to carry out reforms that will improve the lives of the citizenry by creating jobs, abolishing fuel subsidy and appropriating more powers to the state governments.
“As a progressive, I believe we must transform the nation by embarking on deep and impactful reforms, by creating more jobs, providing social policy initiatives and building an infrastructure befitting a leading nation. Social services must become a reality close at hand and not a vague dream lying in the distance.
“For example, we must reform the current fuel subsidy regime. At this stage it causes more problems than it cures. Bottlenecks of long fuel queues, erratic supply, resultant economic dislocations for consumers from lack of fuel and the corrupt practices of trade insiders undermine the good intentions upon which the subsidy is based. Currently, the subsidy does not benefit the average person. It sweetly profits the elite who manipulate the programme to their own advantage. We need to allow market forces to more directly determine price. We need to open the now closed market to more suppliers. In this way, we may better harmonise supply and demand, where they do the most sustainable economic good”, he said.
Tinubu called on Nigerians to keep faith with the progressive vision because “the other side, the conservative party among us, believe they can miraculously improve the nation by retaining the old ways that led us into the ditch in the first instance.”
At the same occasion, President Muhammadu Buhari warned that his government will not condone any action that would undermine the smooth conduct of the 2019 polls.
He asked politicians and political parties to pledge their commitment to the democratic process.
The president, who spoke through the Secretary to the Government of Federation, Boss Mustapha, said politicians and political parties must ask their supporters to respect the electoral process and refrain from violence, while aggrieved parties should learn to seek redress through constitutional means and respect for the rule of law.
He said Nigerians must have confidence in the ability of the country’s political institutions to conduct peaceful and successful election, and stressed that timely adjudication and resolution of legal complaints, arising from elections, is a key component of the country’s democratic process.
Meanwhile, National President of Fulani socio-cultural association, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Alhaji Bekko Abdullahi Badejo, has blamed the politics of 2019 for the eagerness to paint Fulani herdsmen in bad light, by a section of the country.
He said this, yesterday, during a chat with newsmen in Kano, where he alerted the public that politicians are taking advantage of the farmers/ herdsmen crisis in different parts of the country to pursue their own agenda in the build up to 2019.
“Politicians are interfering in the herdsmen / farmers crisis. They are trying to create division as well as divide the minds of the people.”
Alhaji Badejo denied that Fulani herdsmen were responsible for all the recent attacks and killings across the country and insisted that, on the contrary, they are largely, a peace-loving people that would not take the life of anybody.
