Don’t truncate democracy, group tells politicians

Politicians have been asked to imbibe the spirit of tolerance and ensure issue-based campaigns ahead of the 2015 general elections.

Addressing a press conference yesterday in Abuja, national coordinator of Goodluck Initiative for Transformation (GIFT), Engr. Chinedu Okpalanma who led leaders of about 200 groups and organizations in Northern Nigeria to the conference appealed to politicians to shun intolerance and dictatorial tendencies.

He said:”We are witnessing sustained sabotage like has never been seen before in Nigeria, simply to create mayhem and paint a picture of chaos. They want the world to believe that Nigeria is not working but we are saying that is not true.”

Okpalanma dispelled the claim that the North is against President Jonathan and that Nigeria would break if Jonathan is re-elected in 2015, stressing that politicians and mischief makers should stop tarnishing the image of Nigeria to the international community.

He said the essence of the press conference was to encourage dialogue and unity of the country and to ask President Jonathan to declare his intention on or before the 30th of this month to contest the 2015 election.

He lauded Jonathan’s administration in the areas of freedom of information, improvement in the country’s Gross Domestic Product, democratic institutions, infrastructure and general improvement in all the sectors of the nation’s economy.