Otunba Segun Showunmi, a former Spokesperson for the defunct Atiku Abubakar Marketing campaign Organisation, has mentioned there’s an pressing want for a political motion to dislodge the present All Progressives Congress, APC, authorities.
He famous that the opposition motion in Nigeria’s democracy has come a great distance since 1999, with some progress made with multi-party democracy.
He counted the profitable switch of energy from one occasion to a different in 2015 as one of many quite a few achievements.
Nonetheless, he lamented that the keenness of residents have waned over time with every election proving to be worse than the earlier, leading to regression and downward loop when it comes to turning out on election day.
“We’ve got watched with agony because the clear ideological variations inside events have disappeared, making the alternatives first about particular person personalities and fewer about values and beliefs,” he mentioned at a press convention in Abuja on Monday.
“Sadly now, it’s evolving dangerously to only cash in a highest bidder heist of the suffrage of the voters in our beloved nation.
“We’ve got watched the electoral umpire, INEC, enhance its pointers and operational guide.
“But, fairly than a rise in election integrity, what we see is a progressive lack of integrity and transparency within the electoral course of.
“The judiciary of our nation has not been spared as we now have noticed an unacceptable and harmful erosion of the integrity of judicial establishments, which ordinarily ought to present steadiness, checkmating establishments of presidency and defending the state from an entire collapse.
“We’ve got noticed a rise within the actions of thugs, different non-state actors and violence at play, including to the challenges of our democracy.”
He mentioned there should be a delivery of a motion to rescue the nation and democracy from the hazard being seen on the horizon.
“There’s an pressing want for a platform to have interaction political actors, nationwide stakeholders, academia, civil society, the media, the political events themselves, democratic establishments of different nations and all who can contribute to the wellness and sustainability of our democracy. We’ve got created Nationwide Opposition Motion Coalition.
“This has grow to be mandatory as it’s apparent that those that are elected members of the opposition haven’t proven the braveness to tackle the problems that have an effect on the nation and the well-being of the plenty.
“Removed from trying to evolve right into a political occasion, we search to have interaction Nigerians and supply steering on the problems of opposition.
“We will work in the direction of eradicating the menace of buying and selling in votes for a token.
“Penalties of the obnoxious observe of buying and selling in votes might be defined by correct training and advocacy.
“Those that have continued to pilfer our widespread patrimony, stealing the nation dry, and individuals of questionable wealth can not seize the reins of energy and authority of our beloved nation underneath the guise of democracy. This we should not enable to persist or endure.
“We’re proposing an opposition motion which is not going to lend itself to chaos.”
