Sultan to Nigerians: Vote and protect it
The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, has urged Nigerians to come out enmasse to cast their votes and ensure they protect their votes during Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections.
He gave the advice yesterday in Abuja at the 2019 Murtala Muhammed Memorial Lecture with the theme, “Towards credible, peaceful and participatory election -Moving Nigeria’s democracy forward.”
“Why so much concern about the presidential election in Nigeria especially by foreign partners? But the simple issue is that Nigeria’s 200 million population is such a big concern to everybody. The reason is that the survival of Nigeria is so important to the world that everybody must come together to see credible and peaceful elections in Nigeria where whoever emerges will be accepted by all and must be accepted by all,” the Sultan said.
On his part, the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, said that there was need for the political parties and the system to begin to put trust in young people.
“It is extremely important that older politicians give the younger ones the chance to man the affairs of the nation, not because they are the majority, but because they have shown the commitment and capacity to provide the kind of leadership Nigeria require.
“The political parties and the system need to begin to put trust in young people, not just because they are the majority as people say but because when you go to the history of our country, you find it that all the great things were done by young people. You think of Tafawa Balewa, Ahmadu Bello, Yakubu Gowon, Muritala Muhammed, and Olusegun Obasanjo in his first term as military Head of State,” he said.
On her part, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the foundation and daughter of the late ex-Head of State, Mrs. Aisha Muhammed-Oyebode, said the platform provided by the lecture series had contributed to shaping public discourse that mattered to Nigeria in particular, and Africa at large.
She said that positive interventions and outcomes in society had been achieved as result of the follow-up on action points, suggestions and commitments made during previous editions of the lecture by the organizers.
“This year alone, we have different levels of elections in at least 16 African countries. Sadly, these countries facing elections in Africa, Nigeria inclusive, are often flagged as volatile states in the international community. It is thus important that Nigeria sets a good precedence for other African countries to follow with the peaceful conduct of the elections this weekend,” she said.
She added that though her father led a military administration, he believed in Nigerians democracy and subscribed to the cardinal democratic principles of civilian supremacy and military neutrality within a participatory democracy.