Senator representing Ekiti South Senatorial District, Sen. Biodun Olujimi, has called on Nigerians to use the significance of June 12 as the country’s democracy day to pursue and promote issues that would foster national cohesion and peaceful co-existence.
Olujimi, in a statement personally signed on Friday in Ado-Ekiti, said Nigerians needed a united front to surmount the myriad of challenges currently affecting the country as exemplified in the June 12, 1993 election when Nigerians shunned ethnicity and religion to vote for late Chief Moshood Abiola.
The former Senate Minority leader, said June 12 should be a day of sober reflection to weigh the country’s democracy, reflect and restrategise on how to move Nigeria forward rather than a day of celebration across the country.
She acknowledged the incalculable contributions of the late MKO Abiola and other Nigerians who struggled for the enthronement of democracy, adding that genuine democracy remains one of the fulcrums capable of engendering socio-economic and political development.
While condemning the incessant killings in the country, she urged President Muhamnadu Buhari to take urgent steps to address the problems of insurgency, insecurity and infringement on human rights, which she described as capable of derailing the nation’s democratic journey.
“June 12 was a watershed in the annal of history of Nigeria political life when religions and sectionalism couldn’t clog the reasoning of the people in electing our leaders.
“But unfortunate despite the sacrifices paid by Abiola and other martyrs, Nigeria democracy is still wandering in the wilderness of uncertainty. We are still very far from where we ought to be as a nation. It is evident that all the barometers of socio-economic development were in the negative mode.
“However, government should do what’s right. Democracy is not handled well. Justice need to be the watchword. We should have an electoral system that works and not by happenstance. And governance should be political office holders’ priority and not polity”, she added.
The Senator called on Nigerians to sustain the clamour of fairness, equity, and justice in the distribution of the nation’s wealth and rededicate themselves to the ideals and ethos of democracy, which she described as a launch pad to national development.
