Democracy Day: Atiku Urges Nigerians to Mourn Those Killed Across the Country

As Nigeria celebrates Democracy Day, a former Vice President of the country, Atiku Abubakar has urged Nigerians to spare some time and mourn all those murdered in the ongoing needless killings across the country.

In a statement by his media office on Monday, the former vice president noted that these Nigerians were killed in the continuing murderous rampage of criminal elements across the country, especially in Borno, Yobe, Benue, Adamawa, Taraba, Kogi, Nasarawa, Plateau, Southern Kaduna, and Zamfara States.

According to Atiku, other Nigerians have been killed by armed robbers, kidnappers, cattle rustlers and other marauding bandits, adding that the killings have even extended to sacred places of worship where innocent Imams and Christian clergy and worshipers are slaughtered.

 Atiku added that the carnage has gone on for too long and must stop.

He recalled that in a letter that he had sent to the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria recently on these killings, he had pointed out that only government can stop these senseless killings if the country were to avoid major and further damage to the fabric of its fragile unity.

 “The recent history of Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi and Central African Republic, among others, should be a strident warning to all of us, especially those in government whose primary responsibility is the protection of the citizens, but who have been dithering, making contradictory and ridiculous excuses and engaging in diversionary finger-pointing,” he said.

 He stated that the democracy that the country celebrates today is a fruit of the labour of patriots, some of who paid the supreme price.

The former vice president disclosed that despite the assault on the country’s hard-won democracy by anti-democratic forces, Nigerians have continued to soldier on as a people and as a country.

He pointed out that the integrity of Nigeria’s electoral process and ability of government to be accountable to the people are the minimum requirements to appreciate the sacrifices of those who gave their all for the enthronement of democracy in the country.

“Nigeria’s journey to democracy was a tortuous one that claimed lives and limbs of many a patriot and it is incumbent upon us as beneficiaries of their sacrifices to ensure that we advance the course of democracy through transparent elections and making our governmental institutions work for the people,” he said.

“As inheritors of this beautiful concept of democracy, it behooves us to ensure that democracy is nurtured not just as a mechanism for a periodic change of government, but as a social construct.

The ultimate virtue in democracy is the power that it bestows in the people. The very essence of that power lies in the ability of the people to live a complete lifestyle that enables every man or woman to triumph in his or her legitimate pursuit. The concept of democracy is absolutely incongruent with a notion of regimentation either in the political or economic sphere,” he added.

He argued that the country’s challenges about insecurity and diversification of the economy have acquired new phases in the past few years and thus should the solutions to those challenges require a brand new thinking.

“As the nation goes through a cycle of elections in the coming months, it is important that the integrity of the electoral process is sacrosanct with guarantees of free and fair election. Democracy is by itself a self-correcting concept, but only if there is guarantee of credibility in the electoral process,” he said.

“We have mourned Nigerian souls to terror attacks enough for us to learn that it is insufficient that the federal government has exclusive statutory mandate in providing security for our people. Our economy has become too exposed to the vagaries of global oil prices for us not to decipher that we need to invest massively in infrastructure and liberalize the economy to create fresh opportunities for the people,” he added.