Comments being made my some of the country’s leading politicians ahead of the 2015 general elections are worrisome, one-time Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku has said.
Anyaoku, speaking in Abuja during a lecture to commemorate the 2013 Nigeria Public Service Day, expressed disappointment with insinuations from known public figures that the president in 2015 must emerge from a certain region of the country.
“…we also hear at the same time from similarly notable nationals that a different area must have its full two terms of eight years,” he said. “In our ethnically and religiously diverse country that is still to cohere fully into one nation, the potential consequences of the failure by either side to win the presidency in 2015 are the grounds for my worry.”
Anyaoku urged political figures and opinion leaders to consider the consequences of heating the polity on the country’s stability, saying sectional and ethnic differences should never influence political ideologies.
“To promote national solidarity and entrench democracy, our politicians and leaders of thought must move away from section-based to policy-based politics,” he advised.
He also called for support of political office aspirants based on their manifestos and those of their political parties. He argued that preference should be given to the policies and programmes for addressing the various challenges currently confronting the country.
He equally implored political office aspirants to be motivated by the will to serve the country and its people rather than inordinate ambition for money and power.
