Sultan of Sokoto Urges Nigerians to Protect their Votes •Let’s start trusting young people as president, Says Emir Sanusi

Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa'ad Abubakar, has called on Nigerians to go out next Saturday, vote the presidential candidate of their choice and ensure they protect their votes.

On his part, the Sultan made the call on Thursday in Abuja during the 2019 Murtala Muhammed Memorial Lecture, organised by Murtala Muhammed Foundation with the theme: ‘Towards Credible, Peaceful and Participatory Election-Moving Nigeria’s Democracy Forward'.

He stated: “Why so much concern about the presidential election in Nigeria especially by foreign partners? We need to ask ourselves. But the simple issue is that‎ Nigeria's 200 million population is such a big concern to everybody.

“The reason is that the survivability of Nigeria is so important to the world that everybody must come together to see credible and peaceful elections in Nigeria where whoever emerges the winner will be accepted by all.”

The Sultan noted that those at the top feel they are at the top and they control everything, stressing that it is the people who control everything.

He said: “That is why I want to call on Nigerians to go out  and exercise  their rights; vote for the candidate you feel is best for you and ensure you protect your vote.”

‎

Also, the Emir of Kano‎, Muhammed Sanusi (II), said there was need for the political parties and the system to begin to put trust in young people, not just because they are in majority, but because the country history has shown that Nigeria achieved more with young people in charge.

According to him, “Check out when Tafawa Balewa, Ahamadu Bello, Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Muhammed‎, Olusegun Obasanjo in his first term as military Heads of State.

“I certainly think Obasanjo in his first term when he was in his 30s  was a better head of state than his second term when he was in his 70s.

“So, it is important that giving the history of our country, young people have shown that they are capable, that they have vision, that they have the energy, that they have the belief in the country and we need to consciously promote them and hopefully, next elections 2023, we will begin to see much more younger people.

“I hope those who are older will be there to guide them, counsel them like the way ‎ Maitama‎ Sule was counselling late Gen. Murtala Muhammed.

“But it is extremely important that older generation, while they are alive to hand over this country to the next generation, they should watch them so that when they are gone, they would be happy.”

Earlier, the Chief Executive Officer of the foundation, Aisha Muhammed-Oyebode, had said this year’s edition was rather auspicious coming just few days to the elections.

She stressed that while some progresses have been made in the country’s electoral process, a lot still need to be done to improve democratic process and entrench good governance.

On his part, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, while delivering his keynote address titled: ‘Towards Credible Elections', said the country appears to have made some progress in its electoral process.

He added that in the estimation of most people, the 2011 elections were better than that of 2007 and the 2015 elections were better than that 2011. There are metrics to prove this trend.

Odinkalu said: “In 2007, 1,299 offices out of a total of 1,496 elective offices contested ended up in election petition tribunals, yielding an astounding 86.5 percent. In 2011, 769 petitions were filed, totaling 51.4 percent of all contested positions or a net dis-satisfaction rate (from the election petition output) of 35.1 percent. 2015 was the first time that Nigeria’s presidential elections did not end up in court.

“It was also the first time that the proportion of elections ending up in courts was less than 50 percent (it was about 46.1 percent). In 2019, Nigeria has the unique opportunity to either sustain this trend of incremental progress or to reverse it.”