Former Deputy Senate President, Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu has lamented growing intolerance among political actors and urged them to nurture internal democratic culture within the parties as a panacea.
This was even as the Save Democracy Group (SDG) cautioned against ‘do-or-die’ politics and the need for political actors to “imbibe the culture and values of tolerance to each other’s points of view”.
Mantu who spoke shortly after his inauguration as the chairman SDG National Advisory Council (NAC), maintained that there was a compelling need to reform the polity and allow the choices of the party members and the electorate to triumph.
Though Mantu played critical roles in dawn of the current democratic process, he accused Nigerian political leaders of truncating public wishes and stressed the urgent need to rescue the polity from fierce and unbridled volatile verbal and physical engagement.
Though he argued that the current democratic governance brought about remarkable improvements in the socio-economic fabric of the people, he harped on the need to nurture true democratic culture.
Said Mantu: “For a people to say they want to form a group that would save democracy, such people should be encouraged because there is no doubt they have good intentions.
“I am happy I met a lot of the people who have been peaching good neighbourliness, peace and love here. It shows we are working together. I remember, Professor Obaje, he had to call me severally to his office in the Presidential Villa, to reconcile people. I remember we disagreed severally with then President Olusegun Obasanjo, and he would not get tired of talking to him.
“I told them several years ago that for us to live like one nation, we must all be treated like first-class citizens because that is what will make us to emerge a great nation.
“But the major problem we are facing is that there is no internal democracy now in the political parties. Anybody who emerges through rigging will definitely fight back.
“We have a gigantic work ahead of us but we should not get tired. We must also make sacrifices with out pockets.
“We are worried about the way things are working and we want to change things so that our younger ones will not suffer the kind of things we are suffering now”.
Earlier, the National Co-ordinator of the SDG, Dr. Ifedi Okwenna, explained that it was the zeal to improve the nation’s polity that compelled them to bring together the calibre of personalities that made up their NAC.
According to him, “at a time like this in history, great men and women, patriots and statesmen are usually beckoned to come together to assist to strategise and to navigate nation out of the prevailing storm and uncertainties.
“Our democracy is still a fledgling one and there is the urgent need to nutrure and sustain it. Therefore, political actors need to imbibe the culture and value of tolerance to another view point and in playing the game by its rules.
“Our parties should promote the principle of internal democracy and our elections need to be free, fair and credible.
“SDG is not owned by anybody nor do we have a hidden agenda. SDG is simply owned by Nigerian patriots working to preserve and protect our democracy and to preserve our nation. Our objective is to, among others, provide a stabilizing role in the polity and promote good governance and sustainable development irrespective of our affiliations”.
