Former Military Administrator of Plateau and Katsina States, retired Maj. Gen. Lawrence Onoja, has urged all Nigerians to obey the principles of democracy to ensure peace and security.
He made the call in a keynote delivered at the National Peacebuilding Conference with theme “Electoral process, governance, democracy, security and conflict resolution in 2023 general elections” held in Abuja on Tuesday.
He charged the country’s political leaders to promote credible and transparent electoral process that guarantee citizens’ participation.
He said, “Internationally, democracy is a license for gaining access to international diplomacy, finance, trade, investment, sports, entertainment, tourism, humanitarianism, defense and security.
“As countries rush to obtain this tagging of been democratic, Nigeria should distinguish its brand of democracy with adherence to critical principles of democracy that include rule of law, justice.
“Respect for human rights, provision of welfare, and human security for the citizens, transparency and accountability, open government, citizens participation and inclusiveness.
“It is imperative therefore, that political leaders encourage, imbibe, accept and celebrate transparent, credible and open electoral process as a fundamental national security commitment and minimum benchmarking, guaranteeing the equal participation of Nigerians in the governance of their affairs,” Onoja said.
Onoja added that electoral process was very crucial and central to democracy, governance, security and conflict resolution, adding that the reason for the use of court in conflicts resolution was the absence of democratic governance of commonwealth and privileges.
The former military administrator emphasised that, as Nigerians continue to struggle for a functional government that would guarantee to them food security, health security, community security, economic security, political security, environmental security and personal security, it was important for the relevant state institutions to begin to function effectively.
He said, the 2023 general election was a defining moment for Nigeria in view of the several threats to peace, security, and development that confronting the nation on the eve of the election.
He commended President Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar of PDP and Peter Obi of Labour Party for toing the path of peace.
In his remark, the Director-General of the Institute for Crisis Resolution, Peacebuilding and Conciliation (ICRCP), Prof. Andrew Zamani said that, as a professional group and major stakeholders in the Nigeria Project, the ICRPC believed it must interrogate the electoral processes in Nigeria since independence.
He said the interrogation was with the view to identifying the election best practices and flaws, to strengthen the country’s democracy.
Zamani said, “Elections processes reveal our collective attitudes towards power, justice and equity.
“In this regard, it is incumbent on the Conference to extend its search light beyond elections managed by INEC and Independent State Electoral Commission to party governance and democracy.
“It is important to interrogate the influences of patriarchy, godfatherism, money and filial bigotry on the party governance and leadership recruitment process in the country.
“It will not be too much to examine the role of the judiciary and extrajudicial factors in the resolution of conflicts arising from contentious election results.
“In doing our discoveries will not unrelated to the general state of the rule- of- law in Nigeria.”
He noted that, the growth of Nigeria as an economic power house in Africa was dependent on having strong institutions capable of ensuring an electoral process that works.
