Abia Guber: Dr Johnson-Ogbuneke calls for integrity of candidates; free, fair elections 

The Social Democratic Party (SDP) gubernatorial candidate Apostle Dr Ngozika Gladys Johnson-Ogbuneke, calls on the entire citizen of Abia and Nigeria at large, for integrity of the electorate in the forthcoming election.

 

In her speech concerning integrity of electorate on the forthcoming election, for the election to qualify for democratic integrity, the process must be free and fair without any coercion or bribery tactics and independent of the incumbents.

 

However, a “liberal democracy” describes a democratic government with individual freedoms protected by constitutional rights and liberties along with collective rights and liberties all enforced by the rules of law.

 

The guber candidate, calls on the entire people of Abia State who have collected their PVCs to also come out en masse, in order for them to vote out bad government from the political system, a functional democracy must have a full set of institutional procedures; more importantly, it should have full participation of the people.

 

This is a clarion call, a plea for Abians to use their heads instead of a facile resort to emotions and other divisive reflexes, Nigeria’s Governance, whether at the state or federal level, have been unable to rise above the din of self-serving shenanigans and the trappings of prebendal politics.

 

One of the key consequences of the crisis of confidence between the masses and their elected representatives is the near-total neglect of critical sectors of the economy.

 

The philosophical commitment for transformational change is already there, that change will come about through a purposeful rejection of what the Previous Government and its owners have come to epitomize today, namely, corruption, the despoliation of the State and its resources coupled with an uncanny desperation to maintain the untenable status quo of parochial and selfish pursuits through the illegal resort to violence and the abuse of state structures.

 

“Today, the need for a new and overhauled governance has never been greater. The country requires political platforms whose members are imbued with both the vision and the will to steer the ship of state away from over a decade of incompetence and misgovernance.

 

“There is no gainsaying the fact that Abians want change of the social and democratic kind.”