A Foundation member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and former Director General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr Osita Okechukwu, has called for retrospection on the spate of violence leading to elections bedevilling liberal democracy in the country.
Okechukwu said this in a statement on Sunday in Enugu while reacting to the pre-election and election outcomes of the Osun State Gubernatorial Election. According to him, the political violence in the form of inciting hate speech, breach of the rule of law, and late delivery of court judgment were tragically manifested in the loss of innocent lives in the build-up to the election.
He said: “One frowns at violence, killings, and prays for the repose of the souls of those who lost their lives; the real lesson we must learn is that the banditry bedevilling our dear country should be henceforth addressed.
“We must urgently focus on eradicating the ‘banditry in all of us’ as we approach the 2027 General Elections. Violence, take note, is not limited to bush bandits who carry arms. It manifests daily in hate speech, political intolerance, breach of the rule of law, erosion of the ethics of liberal democracy, and planlessness and squandermania.”
Okechukwu regretted that a tragedy of such magnitude could occur in Osun, where the overwhelming majority of the indigenes are Yoruba and where there had been no historical distinction between Muslims and Christians. The Osun experience should compel Nigerians to look beyond constitutional and structural arrangements and examine the attitudes, values and conduct of individuals and institutions, according to him.
He stressed that democracy could only thrive when citizens and political actors respect human life, the rule of law, peaceful political competition and the sanctity of the ballot. Okechukwu called for deep introspection ahead of the 2027 General Elections, urging Nigerians to “wean ourselves of banditry” in all its manifestations.
“We must place the interests of humanity, Nigeria and the respective states above personal, partisan and sectional interests. In conclusion, I congratulate His Excellency, Ademola Adeleke, for his referendum test victory. I urge him to utilise his large heart to urgently heal a divided Osun State via inclusive administration devoid of ancient grudges, above partisan politics and where everyone has a sense of belonging,” he said.
