Part with credible elections in 2023, CDD advises Buhari

•Cautions politicians against weaponising religion, ethnicity
•HURIWA comes down hard on President over performance

On occasion of Nigeria’s Democracy Day, yesterday, Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) charged the Federal Government to see conduct of free, fair and credible elections as a priority next year for sustainability of the most populous black nation.

The Director, in a statement, in Abuja, said it behoves Nigerians to ensure that the exercise process is not disrupted by disgruntled elements.

The observer noted: “We appreciate efforts being made by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) so far. No Nigerian must be disenfranchised. We want the votes of Nigerians to also count. Politicians must understand the plight of Nigerians, and desist from any action that would lead to disunity.”

Maintaining that Nigerians deserve more, Hassan said there was urgent need to revive the economy and tackle the root causes of insecurity.

She submitted that unless the country wins the anti-graft corruption war, inequality, poverty, under development, unemployment, marginalisation and insecurity would persist.
The CDD chief challenged the citizens on a better Nigeria, reminding them that everything should not be about rights, but also on duties revolving around enhanced nationhood.

With the nation’s public debt standing at N41 trillion, unemployment rate hovering over 33 per cent, inflation rising by 16.82 per cent year-on-year as at April 2022 and exchange rate already standing at N603 to a dollar at the black market, the group stated that the seven years of President Buhari administration could not have been better, given the series of promises made during electioneering.

THIS is even as the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) told the Nigerian leader that there was nothing to celebrate since he took over power.

In a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, the group said “Nigerians have nothing to celebrate with 1$ which now exchanges for N600 at the parallel market, with 28 Nigerians killed daily by ferocious bandits and 23 million unemployed people amid rising statistics of jobless countrymen, with diesel price per litre at over N500, staggering petrol price reaching N200 per litre, and soaring cooking gas at over 300 per cent, among others.”

Onwubiko said Buhari’s scorecard in the last one year was nothing to write home about.

He said this while reacting to events lined up for the celebration of this year’s Democracy Day and declaration of a public holiday today.

The Buhari regime had, in 2018, declared June 12 as Democracy Day, in honour of the late presumed winner of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election, Moshood Abiola.

But HURIWA said the actions, inactions and socio-economic realities of the Buhari government in the past seven years do not represent democratic values and dividends.

The rights group said economically, “Nigerians have not gained any dividend of democracy despite being in the 23rd year of unbroken practice of democracy since May 1999. Nigeria is groping under 16.82 per cent inflation rate that has eroded the value of the naira, with the minimum wage as paltry as N30,000 per month. Today, cost of living has shot up and the poor are now poorer and infrastructural projects are collapsing rapidly.”