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Nigeria’s Political crisis caused by faulty electoral
process-ANPP Chairman
By Chuks Ehirim Newsdiaryonline Thur June 23,2011
The current political crisis in Nigeria has been blamed on
faulty electoral process which produces a set of leaders who
emerge, not through the electoral will of the people, but
through manipulations. This point was made by the National
Chairman of the All Nigeria Peoples Party[ANPP], Dr Ogbonnaya Onu.
The ANPP boss who spoke at a lecture organized in Abuja,for
participants of
Executive Intelligence Management Course 4,2011,by the institute
for security service, yesterday, added the challenge
confronting the country is how to elect a visionary leadership
that can mobilize Nigerians to effectively convert the
country’s abundant natural resources into finished goods and
services which are needed to improve the standard of living of
the people. According to him, it is important to point out that
the greatness of any nation does not depend on the availability
of natural resources alone. What really makes a nation
great is the ability of such a nation to convert these raw
materials into finished goods and services that can impact
positively on the lives of its citizens.
‘’It is when the lives of citizens are improved upon, that a
society can move with confidence towards the frontiers of
sustainable development which is the chief reason for effective
leadership, especially in a democracy. When there are
visible signs of improvement in the lives of the people, poverty
and corruption are reduced, so that they are happier and better
fulfilled. For these to be achieved, the rule of law
should be held sacred, law and order maintained such that all
citizens can live and work in a secured environment’’, he said.
He added that better infrastructure, through the availability
of good roads,improvement in the quality of education and health
care, as well as job creation and job security, are needed to
promote and preserve the happiness of the people.
‘’In order to achieve this, political parties should work
tirelessly and if necessary, renew themselves so that they can
nominate the right people for election into leadership positions
in our country. Such people should be visionary and must be
guided by noble and progressive ideals for the transformation of
our dear nation.
‘’Such leaders must be men and women with vision who are
prepared to look beyond self interest and are ready to use good
governance by employing the rule of law to tackle the pressing
issues of development and social justice. After all, it is well
known that when the right leaders emerge, the people rejoice’’.
‘’Nigeria yearns for the right leaders, who are selfless and
passionate with the burning desire to work tirelessly for the
overall rapid development of our dear country. Selfless leaders
put the interest of the people and the nation first, before
other considerations. Their personal and individual interests
are subordinated to that of the community. Visionary leaders
know that the capacity to turn the nation into a rich, united,
peaceful and a modern country that benefit the people depend on
the citizens’’.
‘’When leaders with vision emerge, the people are energized,
they wake up from their sleep, they stand on their feet and
respond positively to the call for service to the community.
Such powerful energy from the people, which had before then
remained latent, is what creates wealth and increases the level
of development with the attendant improvement in the standard of
living of the people’’.
‘’The ability of the people to search and elect the right
leaders, who are selfless and visionary, prepared to do what is
right and just, depends on the character and strength of our
democratic processes and practices. Democracy is all about
popular participation in governance under the rule of law, which
indeed is the foundation of any progressive society’’.
‘’The important task of selecting good, selfless and visionary
leaders who look beyond self interest and are ready to use the
rule of law and good governance to tackle the important issues
of development can best be accomplished by political parties.
Political parties, as groups of like minded people, united by a
broadly similar ideology and motivated by the desire to seek
power through elections in order to implement policies dear to
them, are therefore most suited to strengthen democracy’’.
He said that the strength of democracy is dependent on the
electoral process which provides the enabling environment for
political parties to operate. ‘’A flawed electoral process
produces bad leaders who disregard the rule of law and are not
accountable to the people. Transparency, openness and good
governance are unfortunately sacrificed on the altar of
exigencies. Most disturbing and worrisome is that most of the
crises in our polity today, can be traced to faulty electoral
processes and practices. Hence for political processes to be
effective agents of democratization and good governance, they
must be seen as credible, reliable and accountable’’.
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