President Muhammadu Buhari on the occasion of Democracy Day celebration commended political parties in Nigeria to ensure peace in conduct of their party primaries ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Buhari while delivering a national address commemorating Nigeria’s 30 years of transition to Democracy made this charge to Nigerians and the various political parties.
Buhari, who described the primaries as peaceful and orderly, noted that those who won were magnanimous in their victories, while those who lost were gracious in defeat, adding that those aggrieved opted to seek judicial justice as opposed to jungle justice.
He said he was hopeful that Nigeria could achieve the record of peaceful primaries, adding that the signs so far were positive.
He said, “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.
“I was very pleased to see this development. This augurs well for the future. These trends clearly show the level of maturity our democracy has achieved in the last 23 years,” he went further to commend.
As we move into the general election campaign season, however, Buhari urged political parties, politicians and voters to sustain mature attitude to campaigning and ultimately, voting.
He said, “We must never see it as a “do or die” affair. We must all remember democracy is about the will of the majority. There must be winners and losers.”
The 2022 celebration of Democracy Anniversary marks exactly 29 years from the 1993 Presidential election, won by Chief M.K.O Abiola, but was annulled by former Head of State, Ibrahim Babangida.
