The National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, has urged President Bola Tinubu to return Nigeria to the path of Federal Constitutional Governance, upon which Nigeria secured her independence and which most ethnic nationalities’ leaders, civil society bodies, among others, had vigorously campaigned for in the last 30 years.
The group made the call in a statement, yesterday, to commemorate the 30th Anniversary of June 12, 1993. The statement is titled: ‘June 12 and the Search for Democracy’.
NADECO, a broad based, nation-wide, non-partisan platform to reject the contemptuous, provocative and tyrannical annulment of the June 12,1993 elections, globally considered to be the freest, most transparent, stressed that the reality of the Nigerian political trajectory demonstrates vividly that the country has been administered on fire brigade approach by successive military strongmen who were politicians in military uniform.
The statement read in part: “The consequences of the prolonged military dictatorship include the fundamental fact that they have prevented the growth of democracy, democratisation, expansion and consolidation of democratic features and culture in Nigeria.
Because over 65 per cent of Nigerians are young people, most of them have never experienced democracy and its features.
“Again, the military abrogated, and substituted our cherished and negotiated federal constitution and replaced it with their various decrees which had unitarised all government policies and activities and which in turn has occasioned injustice, inequity, disregard for the rule of law and all kinds of discrimination.
“All the giant strides recorded by our founding fathers in the First Republic had been significantly destroyed while all the hopes and aspirations of our people at independence have been dashed by the politicians in military uniform.
“NADECO therefore will expect President Tinubu to return Nigeria to the path of Federal Constitutional Governance upon which Nigeria secured her independence and which most Ethnic Nationalities Leaders, Civil Society bodies, Opinion leaders, among others had vigorously campaigned for in the last 30 years at least.
“President Tinubu perhaps was brought to government by Providence, nay by God, to return Nigeria to the path of sanity where it would be able to establish a productive government that promptly lifts it’s people out of prolonged misery and poverty, modernise its education system, and organise its agricultural endowments to meet the value chain necessities required in the modern world where agriculture is organised as a business.”
The group, therefore, “demands from Tinubu to capture accurately the national mood and demands from his government to implement the report of Mallam Nasir El Rufai Panel which recommended that APC should fulfil its manifesto promise of returning Nigeria to Federal Constitutional Governance. Popular will is giving prominent recognition in modern governance.”
(Vanguard)