2023: Developments In Political Terrain Threaten Democracy, Nigeria’s Survival — Northern Elders

The Northern Elders Forum (NEF), has warned that the prospects for safe conduct of the 2023 elections were being threatened by the conduct of the politicians.

Director of Publicity and Advocacy of the Forum, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, disclosed this in a statement issued yesterday and titled: “Worrying Developments in Nigeria’s Current Politics.”

The Forum said it was deeply concerned over developments in many aspects of the country’s politics as it related to preparations for the 2023 elections and beyond.

It noted that such developments threatened the nation’s already distressed democratic process.

“Our politics now operates outside safe and tolerable boundaries, and the nation will pay dearly for the desperation and limitations of those, who ought to show leadership and responsibility among our politicians,” NEF stated.

It further noted that it was not responsible to resist the urge to caution politicians only on the ground that many matters that would impact on the lives and the quality of the country’s national existence were purely internal affairs of political parties.

It added: “The search for a running mate for the APC Presidential candidate with religious faith of two individuals as the sole issue at stake represents a sad reminder that our politicians will not allow our democratic system to grow beyond the narrowest of confinements.

“Nigerians take their faith seriously, but we are also painfully aware that the faith of our leaders has never been a factor in the manner we are governed.

“The political maneuvers in the APC now divert attention from serious issues around the quality of governance, and point to the danger that we are a multi-religious country, whose citizens will pay dearly if one politician is not a Christian or Muslim.

“Politicians are desperately shepherding Nigerians into two irreconcilable religious divides, all in a bid to garner undeserved advantages at the expense of religious tolerance and co-existence.”

NEF stressed that the melodrama around selection of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential candidate’s running mate, and the role of Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, would remain constant reminders that power and wealth, irrespective of how they are acquired, have made the political process its hostage.

The Forum noted that the ransom that would be paid to free the country’s democratic process might be such that the nation could not afford it.

Consequently, the Forum stated, “Our nation is being carved into strongholds controlled by powerful individual politicians, who must be placated at all cost, and we will pay a huge price if these politicians succeed in stamping their personalities into the democratic process.”

It also stressed that among a handful of other parties with the potential to make a difference, ethnicity and greed were threatening to frustrate the emergence of a nation with the capacity to turn around its fortunes in 2023.

It, therefore, noted that instead of exploring options and opportunities that would improve their chances of giving Nigerians real and credible elections, the nation was only witnessing frightening levels of hostility and ethnic chauvinism, as seen recently in exchanges between Labour Party and New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) leaders.

“Ethnic identity in particular looks capable of being elevated to a point where it alone can cripple a successful transition to 2023 and beyond. Our politics has become an additional burden on the Nigerian citizen, even dwarfing the spreading insecurity, poverty and cynicism over the prospects of our survival as one one nation.”