A former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Emeka Anyaoku, says the whole world is watching Nigeria regarding the forthcoming general elections in the country.
Anyaoku spoke yesterday in Lagos where he chaired the unveiling of “New Look Tribune” organized by African Newspapers of Nigeria PLC, publishers of the Tribune titles, to mark its 70th anniversary.
He said the views of the international community on the forthcoming general elections in Nigeria should not be ignored.
He charged the Federal Government and the Independent National Electoral Commission to ensure that the elections reflect the will of Nigerians.
According to him, any attempt to ignore the warning of the international community for a free and fair election would return the country to its “pariah status which it happily exited in 1999 when it once more embraced democracy”.
He also challenged the security agencies to be impartial during the elections.
The elder statesman also declared that Nigeria was currently underperforming in all indices and “lacking in national cohesion as never before”.
He identified restructuring as the only solution to the nation’s problems.
He said: “Nigerian friends and international community as a whole are watching, watching the behaviour of the Federal Government and its agencies including especially the police, the army and the other law enforcement instruments to see how far they respect the country’s constitution, the rule of law and their inherent obligations to act impartially and fairly in playing their roles in respect of the elections.”
According to him, while guiding its sovereignty, Nigeria, just like any other country of the world, “cannot be an island of itself especially with our increasingly globalizing world”.
He said if Nigeria must overcome its political instability and realize its rich potentials, it must restructure and return to true federalism practised in the years before the military intervention.
He decried the spate of killings in the country, saying, “We read every day of killings in tenth, twentieth and sometimes more and people and the government are not reacting commensurably to the situation”.
In his keynote address, Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, said the ongoing crisis in the judiciary over the suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria must be addressed by the Supreme Court justices.
He said the issue was the “fate” that had befallen the temple of justice.
He said as the elections approached, Nigerians should do an introspection and see if their lives were better off from the last election to determine which of the parties to vote for.
