Metuh tasks politicians on tolerance

From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja

The former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olisa Metuh, has called for tolerance among politicians in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition in the overall interest of the country’s democracy.

Metuh, who made the call, while speaking at a press parley in Abuja, ahead of his 60th birthday celebration, said in as much as there are still challenges with Nigeria’s democracy, the country has not fared badly in the democratic journey.

Nonetheless, he challenged the opposition, including the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), African Democratic Congress (ADC) and other opposition political parties, to raise to rise to the task of holding the APC led Federal Government to account over its policies, stating that that is the only way to make the country’s democracy thrive and get the government to perform better.

Also, the former PDP spokesman appealed to government to leaders to be more tolerant of young persons using the social media to ventilate their opinions on developments in the polity, as many of them resort to the social media as an avenue of letting off steam, in the face of the many challenges in the country.

According to them, “Talking about nation building. I want to use the opportunity to encourage Nigerians, speak to them—the old, the young, those in the ruling party, those in the opposition, those who are not interested in what is happening in our democracy, even the business community. They should learn and imbibe the spirit of tolerance, forbearance, accommodating spirit.

“As a democracy, we have not done badly. If you look at it, it has taken a lot of countries hundreds of years to develop. As we are in Nigeria now, there are major challenges to the progress of our democracy. There are major challenges, but we have not done so badly. And at the same time, I want to encourage our leaders, those in the business class, the business community, those in the democratic space, to be more tolerant of our younger ones in the new media space.

“Whatever they do, whatever excitement they use, whatever zeal they use in speaking, in criticizing, in mocking people, they should be tolerated because there are challenges in this nation, which sometimes in the media space, in this new media, in this social media, they do that to let off steam.”

He added “ We need the PDP to rise up, to be much more forward in the way they are doing their opposition, as long as it is based on the policies and the programs of the government. I think when I was a spokesperson of the opposition, my PDP then really rose up to the occasion. We held the government accountable on issues of their policies, on issues of their programs, and Nigerians were happy.

“So, I want to encourage the opposition parties, not only the PDP, but the Labour Party, the ADC, the YPP — all the parties that they have — to rise up and hold the government accountable in terms of the policies and programs. That is the only way that the democracy can thrive very well, and we can get the people in government to perform a lot better. “