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Change bad leadership with your votes, ACF Chieftain tells Nigerians

By Saxone Akhaine, Kaduna
12 June 2021   |   3:02 am
A Chieftain of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Elder Anthony Sani, has advised Nigerians to reject bad leadership with their votes during the 2023 general election and put Nigeria

[FILES] Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) members attend the presidential elections announcement on February 25, 2019 in Abuja. – Muhammadu Buhari got off to a winning start in his bid for re-election as Nigeria’s president, as the first result was announced today from weekend polls. The 76-year-old former military ruler won 219,231 votes in the southwestern state of Ekiti, while his main opponent, Atiku Abubakar, got 154,032, the electoral commission announced. (Photo by Kola SULAIMON / AFP)

A Chieftain of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Elder Anthony Sani, has advised Nigerians to reject bad leadership with their votes during the 2023 general election and put Nigeria on the path of growth and development again.

According to Sani, who reviewed how democracy has been practiced under the current dispensation of President Muhammadu Buhari, the government could not be forced to step down now because of poor performance.

He, however, urged Nigerians to prepare to elect competent leaders in 2023.

He said: “If you make mistake in your choice of a leader and the man is not performing very well, two things can happen – you either live by your mistake until his tenure is over and exercise your freedom and make a new choice during another period of elections or if there are other reasons that he may be removed before his tenure ends, the legislature can exercise its power and remove him.”

Sani stated that democracy has conferred a lot of power on Nigerians to choose credible leaders for the country, stressing that, “this has not been taken away from us.”

He lamented the current state of the nation, saying Nigeria has been bedevilled with crisis and agitations by some segments of the country that are canvassing for secession in the face of security challenges and economic woes.

He added: “We even mistake a government for a country. A government is temporary and a country is permanent. But if we are not satisfied with a government we take it up as a country. This is typical of a third world. We should understand that government is transitional; Buhari will come and go, but Nigeria will remain. Why do we make the mistake of the government like that of the country? Too far!”

The former ACF secretary-general acknowledged the stance of Prof. Wole Soyinka, saying, “if elections are conducted in Nigeria and the people are not satisfied, they should boycott the election and Nigeria will move forward.”

He also doubted the capacity of the Federal Government to tackle terrorism, saying governments over the years have not demonstrated enough intelligence network to handle security challenges.

“For example, Dele Giwa was killed in 1986; Bola Ige was also killed. We have other people who were killed and their killers have not been found up to date. Look at the massacre going on and perpetrated by armed bandits and other terrorists. This actually exposed the capacity of our intelligence network in Nigeria,” he said.

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