NMPC boss cautions politicians against inflammatory comments

THE President of a Non-Governmental Organisation and democracy group, the National Movement for Positive Change (NMPC), Barrister Niyi Aborisade has cautioned Nigerian politicians to be wary of their utterances, and not allow individual interests rock national interest as the country prepare for 2019 general election.

Aborisade made this known in a statement released on the build up to the 2019 general election, warning that national interest supercede any other interests in the country.

He also called on heads and staff of institutional structural agencies not to allow themselves be used as tools by politicians as next year’s election gathers momentum.

According to the statement, “Recent happenings in Nigeria’s political space has really call for concern. Nigeria has conducted undaunted elections in its history, but signals towards 2019 elections seems frightening as had never been in the country.

“The signals from all political camps has become a source of concern for the country’s emerging democracy. Despite the fact that this Republic seems to be the longest ever since Nigeria attained independence in 1960, recent outbursts from the political arenas continue to risk Nigeria’s safety by puncturing the country’s political parachute.

“This is strange in developed world. Even, the inherited unity of Nigeria is not strong enough to the extent that we are still preaching Unity as the bedrock of our existence 50 years after independence. One then wonder why anybody would now be toying with that unity simply because of an election which will hold in another four years.

“NMPC is using this medium to appeal to all political parties, political office holders and their associates to stop heating the polity because of a perceived interest for a singular individual, party, group of people, against the over riding interest of the existence of the country.

“It is high time politicians understand that every Nigerian has a stake in this country,and that Nigeria never belong to them.

“In whatever form, we urge politicians or parties not to take us back to the memory of “do-or-die” politics that dominated Nigeria’s political era some years back. Nigerians never wanted to go back to that season again.

“But the recent utterances across inter and intra parties by politicians all in the name of what to get in the next general election in the country is worrisome. In the process, they have exposed the internal workings, weakness and stronghold of the country to the international society.

“From the presidency to the National Assembly, corridors of political headquarters in the country and security agencies, issues of national importance has been trivialised simply because of individual interest or ambition. This is not the way politics is practised in developed world. Over there, politics is a tool of development, reasons their actors play the game without undermining the goals of the country which is supreme above any political objectives.”