Vice President Kassim Shettima has regretted that democracy is suffering and experiencing many setbacks due to complex pressures, which include history and contemporary challenges like endemic poverty levels and security issues in many countries of Africa.

Shettima spoke Monday at the National Conference on Strengthening Democracy in Nigeria, organized by the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy, and Development (Centre LSD) in Abuja.

He argued, “We live in a highly competitive world where values compete for power to validate them, and a world where the conduct of leaders often challenges assumptions that democratically-elected officers live by the highest standards of morality and rule of law.”

The Vice President observed that Nigeria’s position regarding the gate of democracy in Africa, particularly in our neighborhood, is to respect the sovereignty of people and encourage a return to democracy because citizens in each country desire that return.

“Today, we stand at a point where only the most critical scrutiny of our democratic assets and systems will guarantee that they survive and deliver on their promises. We can rightly state that we have earned the right to live only under a democratic system,” Shettima added.

He therefore maintained that Nigeria shall rise again, answer to its full potential, and lead the way to a future that will have learned lessons from a difficult past into a world in which our country will be a key player, and our youth will be active champions of the democratic system.

“It has been said many times that democracy is the imperfect system, yet superior to all others. We will continue to seek to provide evidence of the values of the democratic system by, among others, fixing major weaknesses in the economy, securing our communities, fighting corruption, and supporting free and fair elections.”