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Foundation of democracy under threat, says Shehu Sani

By Saxone Akhaine (Kaduna) and Cornelius Essen (Abuja)
01 April 2019   |   3:44 am
The incumbent senator representing Kaduna Central Zone in the National Assembly, Shehu Sani, has said that the 2019 general election is the worst the nation has ever conducted following the irregularities that trailed it.

[FILES] Senator Shehu Sani PHOTO: TWITTER/ NIGERIAN SENATE

The incumbent senator representing Kaduna Central Zone in the National Assembly, Shehu Sani, has said that the 2019 general election is the worst the nation has ever conducted following the irregularities that trailed it.Sani, a human right activist who lost his bid to return to the upper chamber, has challenged the results of the election at the petition tribunal.

The senator, who spoke with journalists yesterday, said the 2019 poll was the worst ever conducted in the country considering the irregularities and other malpractices that followed its conduct. According to him, though there is no perfection in the conduct of elections anywhere in the world, “but no sensible person will say the 2019 election was credible.”

“We have also seen the decapitation of very principles and ethics of credible elections by those in position of authority.“You cannot use violence and public resources to get yourself into office and now claim any form of credibility. And I am saying it clearly that as long as leaders will perpetrate injustice, undermine the basic principles of democratic elections and rig themselves into power, they have lost the moral right to call for statesmanship or sportsmanship. You cannot rig elections and destroy the foundation of democracy and demand public order among the people.”

Meanwhile, a group, the Centre for Peace and Environmental Justice (CEPEJ), has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to adopt national coalition government drawn from the six geo-political zones of the country. Its National Co-ordinator, Sheriff Mulade, in a statement yesterday in Abuja, said that this becomes necessary considering the leadership pattern we are operating as a nation.

The group said each zone should run a single term of five years and that the President, Vice President, Senate President, Speaker of House of Representatives, Chief Justice of Nigeria and Secretary of the Government of the Federation should be drawn from the geo-political zones.Also, it said that to form the national coalition government, service chiefs should emerge based on merit and seniority without any interference by the Executive, Legislature or the Judiciary.

“Our democracy appears to be in comatose and what is being practised today as a political system is a fraud and a conduit pipe that is impoverishing the public,” the statement said.Also, it said that to form the national coalition government, service chiefs should emerge based on merit and seniority without any interference by the Executive, Legislature or the Judiciary.

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