Atiku Abubakar, Presidential candidate of the People\u2019s Democratic Party, PDP has described the celebration of June 12 as the \u201csoul of Democratic struggle\u201d<\/p>\n
The former Vice President in a statement he personally signed and made available on Wednesday said June 12 is not merely to be declared a Democracy Day, but that the idea behind the event of June 12, 1993 \u201cdemands Nigerians as democrats to do a soul searching and ask the salient question of all time: how better off are Nigerians?<\/p>\n
According to Atiku, it is not enough to declare June 12 a Democracy Day when the government of the day is disrespectful of the rule of law and wantonly disregards court orders.<\/p>\n
The statement reads: \u201cJune 12 is at the soul of our democratic struggle; a threshold in our national life.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe significance of the celebration of June 12, 1993, Presidential Election is a reminder of our history to becoming a democratic country. On this day twenty-six years ago, Nigeria voted for democracy against the jackboot notion of oppressive totalitarianism.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe collective decision by Nigerians to elect democracy on that day was not to aggrandize the political elite or to replace the military dictatorship with civilian autocracy. No! The choice of democracy was to restore power to the people.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuffice it to state that the idea of June 12 is not merely to declare it as a Democracy Day \u2013 much as celebratory and commendable it might seem.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea behind the event of June 12, 1993, embodies something much bigger than that. It was a threshold moment in our national life that demands of us as democrats to do a soul searching and ask the salient question of all time: how better off are Nigerians?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not enough to declare June 12 a Democracy Day when the government of the day is disrespectful of the rule of law and wantonly disregards court orders on issues that border on fundamental human rights.<\/p>\n
\u201c It is not enough to declare June 12 a work-free day when the ordinary people of Nigeria still don\u2019t have the freedom to find a better life from the suffocating grip of poverty, when Nigeria is now the global headquarters of extreme poverty.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not enough to declare June 12 a work-free day when a disproportionate number of citizens are not sure of where their next meal will come from and when the sanctity of their lives is not guaranteed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not enough to declare June 12 a work-free day when freedom of the press, and of speech, fundamentals of democracy is being assailed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a compatriot who stood shoulder to shoulder with the icon of the June 12 struggle, Chief MKO Abiola of blessed memory, I know first-hand that the choice of HOPE as his campaign slogan wasn\u2019t merely a populist tokenism.<\/p>\n
\u201c He didn\u2019t mean to deceive Nigerians with a hope he could not deliver upon. And, today, the minimum requirement for any June 12 convert is to demand of them wherever they may be \u2013 either in government or in private lives \u2013 to deliver on the promises they made to the people.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is therefore not acceptable that an administration which had an opportunity of four years to deliver the promise of change to Nigerians, not only reneged on that promise but propelled the country into a near-comatose state will lay claims to being a true friend of the June 12 struggle.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be a lover of June 12 is to believe in the common good of the people. June 12 is about the political leadership having the focus to retool the Nigerian economy. It is about having the skills to create wealth and jobs for the teeming mass of unemployed. It is not about the inclination for shared pains; it is about shared prosperity.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we celebrate yet another episode of the June 12 struggle, the desire for hope is more preponderant today much as it was twenty-six years ago. So, for all true lovers of democracy, let us keep the HOPE alive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Atiku Abubakar, Presidential candidate of the People\u2019s Democratic Party, PDP has described the celebration of June 12 as the \u201csoul of Democratic struggle\u201d The former Vice President in a statement he personally signed and made available on Wednesday said June 12 is not merely to be declared a Democracy Day, but that the idea behind […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":11347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,29,14],"tags":[316,97,38,235],"class_list":["post-11426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-atiku","tag-buhari","tag-election","tag-president"],"yoast_head":"\n