Election is not a do or die affair - Sultan warns Buhari, Jonathan

Ahead of the general elections, scheduled to begin on Saturday, March 28, 2015, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ ad Abubakar, yesterday, warned the gladiators, especially President Goodluck Jonathan and Major General Muhammadu Buhari against taking the election as do-or-die affair.

Alhaji Sa ad Abubakar Sultan of Sokoto

Jonathan, the incumbent president, is running on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), while Buhari is the presidential candidate of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).

The elections, initially slated to hold on February 14 and 28, generated heat in the polity before they were rescheduled for March 28 and April 11.

The Sultan spoke on a day Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State urged politicians to defend the nation’s democracy.

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State also urged elder statesmen and national leaders to speak out against issues that could provoke violence during the general elections.

Abubakar told Jonathan, Buhari and other contestants in the general elections that winners of polls had been pre-destined by God, wondering why some of them view elections as a do-or-die affair.

“While they struggle for electoral success, they should also consider the well-being of the country after elections,” the leader of the Muslim community in Nigeria and also the President, Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), stated.

The Sultan spoke when the Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier General Johnson Olawumi, paid pre-election advocacy visit to his palace in Sokoto.

He called on security agencies to protect corps members and other personnel that will be involved in the conduct of the general elections.

Speaking, yesterday, while delivering the keynote address at a National Integration Roundtable Summit organised by the International Summit Group Nigeria, Uduaghan stressed the need to protect democracy in the country.

The Delta governor enjoined politicians, regardless of their party affiliation to avoid action that could negatively affect the nation’s democratic process.

His words: “Let me also admonish political gladiators on the need to safeguard the nation’s nascent democracy we are currently enjoying and ensure that Nigeria does not disintegrate as predicted by some prophets of doom.

“Let us continue work together to promote the welfare of our people. Posterity will judge us if we fail in our duties to meet the needs of our people.

“I must point out that the challenges of incessant disagreement between ethnic and religious groups has become quite discouraging.”

Meanwhile, Fashola has asked leaders to speak up against issues that could provoke violence during the coming elections, saying, by keeping quiet, they were inadvertently assisting those bent on perpetrating electoral fraud in disrupting the process altogether.

Speaking at the Lagos House, Ikeja, when he hosted members of the Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy and Development Council of the Wise, led by former Nigeria’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, the governor said the time had come when all lovers of the country, but particularly elder statesmen, whose voices could be heard globally, should speak out and condemn statements capable of disrupting the electoral process.

Citing the international community to buttress his point, he explained that the community will not necessarily become conciliators only but would also apportion responsibility where it was fitting and apportion blame where it was fitting.

 

Election is not a do or die affair - Sultan warns Buhari, Jonathan