President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to tackle the prevailing challenge of insecurity in the country in order to ensure the conduct of free, safe and secured general elections in 2023.
The President, in a national live broadcast commemorating the nation’s Democracy Day today, also assured Nigerians that voters’ right of choice at the polls would be protected and preserved This came as he tasked all candidates contesting elections to shun divisive and uncouth language and embrace issue-based campaigns.
The President, who noted that this would be his last Democracy Day speech to Nigerians, charged politicians to ensure that the transition was done in a peaceful manner in honour of the memory of Chief M.K.O. Abiola, whose Presidential mandate was annulled by the military some 29 years ago. The President expressed the hope that the 2023 polls would be peaceful, considering the positive signs he observed during the primaries conducted across party lines ahead of the 2023 general elections.
He said: “These primaries were peaceful and orderly. Those who won were magnanimous in their victories. Those who lost were gracious in defeat. And those aggrieved opted to seek judicial justice as opposed to jungle justice. “I followed the party primaries closely from the state level to the Presidential level. I was very impressed to see across all the political parties that, most candidates ran issued based campaigns. The language and tone throughout were on the whole measured and controlled.”
Buhari also noted that the 2022 primaries conducted by parties were significant because of the significant increase in women and youths, adding that the trends clearly showed the level of maturity the nation’s democracy achieved in the last 23 years. “As we move into the general election campaign season, we must sustain this mature attitude to campaigning and ultimately, voting.
