EKITI State Governor Kayode Fayemi has raised doubts over the conduct of the state’s June 16, 2022 governorship election and 2023 general elections amid the deteriorating security situation in the country.
Fayemi said the increasing level of security challenges facing Nigeria posed a great threat to the conduct of the elections, adding that “we must first have a nation before we are able to have election”.
The governor stated this in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti state capital, at a colloquium held in commemoration of this year’s June 12 celebration with the theme: “June12: Securing the Freedom of Democracy”.
He said elections are only realistic in an atmosphere devoid of rancour and security threats, saying that happenings in the country, notably the insecurity and vociferous agitations for balkanisation of Nigeria, required collaborative efforts to save the nation from disintegration.
Fayemi called on Nigerians, irrespective of political leanings and primordial ethnic sentiments as well as social class, to put aside their differences and work for the enthronement of sustainable peace and oneness of the country.
He also advised politicians and ordinary citizens to always interrogate the actions and inactions of their leaders with sense of decency towards ensuring they do the right thing that would promote national integration and enhance socio-economic growth.
The governor said: “We remember and celebrate June 12 because it represents the possibility of a new Nigeria where our fault lines would become our best lines, and our diversity becomes our strength.
“That’s why even as we look forward to another election both here in Ekiti in 2022 and in Nigeria in 2023, I think it is absolutely important for us to always remember that we must first have a country before we are able to have an election.
“If we don’t have a country because we have succumbed to the forces of darkness, then we can kiss elections goodbye and that is why we must all come together – both those who are in government and those who are outside government – to challenge our leaders to do the right thing; confront the issues that divide us , promote the issues that unite us, ensure fairness, ensure equity and justice in our polity. Even as we fight to end criminality, let us unite against all forms of bigotry to build a nation where peace and justice shall reign.”
“Conversely, if the focus is to keep digging out and amplifying what offends one segment against the other, we would continue to compound the current crises,” he said.
The governor, who reminisced on the struggles of some political class for the reign of democracy in the country, noted that the June 12 elections revealed the strength of the nation’s diversity as it betrays the theoretical postulations about ethno-religious influence on electoral outcomes in the country.
Drawing lessons from the June, 12 1993 elections, he said; “For me, the most striking lessons is that unity of purpose, open-mindedness are needed for our country to escape the relentless efforts of some elements to subvert our country’s corporate existence.”
